THEATRE REVIEWS

If you push people too far they react. It can be out of defence to seek vengeance or it can be self destruction. This is such a play. We have all seen young people being pushed too far in the expectation of their parents and interested parties. Julia was one such girl, who had a talent which others exploited until she could not take the ensuing results any longer. Here it is music, but it can be anything you like. This is someone crying out for help.

Joe (Ian Hogg) runs the Julia Lukin Centre for Performing Studies, where part of the building is set apart as a remembrance to the person after whom it is named. Joe invites Andy (Richard Stacey) the one time boyfriend of the girl to meet him one Sunday afternoon as he has been experiencing apparitions. He has also invited a spiritualist, Ken (Adrian McLoughlin) to try and get to the bottom of his experiences. An exorcism is the the basis of the plot.

Haunting Julia is a play by Alan Ayckbourn in a sequence of three plays dealing with the supernatural. Being Ayckbourn, we are given words woven into a fabric of interest that keeps the audience so quiet you could hear a pin drop. We are taken through intrigues and questions for an hour and fifty minutes without a stop, but time will fly and you will be at the end before you know it. Richard Derrington takes on the role of director and brings off some spectacular situations which allow the three actors to give superb performances. The set is provided by Pip Leckenby who seems to know just what is required for an Alan Ayckbourn play.

Faults occur in the programme which you will find and when you leave the theatre you will be unable to view photographs of the actors going about their roles.

If you want your brain exercised and an evening of enjoyment then this is the play for you, a play well up to the usual Ayckbourn tricks and plot. Well worth travelling miles to see. © BA

“Haunting Julia” is in repertory at the Round, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough from the 22 May until the 23 August 2008. This is a No Smoking theatre.

Is there an Air Conditioning certificate prominently displayed in your theatre foyer stating the date of manufacture of the appliance and when the system was last inspected and serviced - if not, complain to the theatre management.