THEATRE REVIEWS

This was a beautiful piece of writing. A master class from Alan Ayckbourn. Everything about this play is right. The pace is right, the plot is right, the set is right, the acting is right and the message is disturbing. The audience sat quietly as they were shown yet more of their lives. They were shocked and their conscience pricked as they saw themselves as the characters acting out how the world behaves. They chuckled at the situations that they were not familiar with, while others sat quiet; and then the role reversed as the story progressed. Meeting Ayckbourn in his private life seemed dangerous, for he is taking his ideas from events and people around him, combining them with things that he has read and seen to mix in to that familiar brew.

Pip Leckenby gets the simple five piece set just right for the actors to go about their tasks under the superb direction of Alan Ayckbourn. The title gives you a backward clue about what this play is about. When you look at people you are not seeing the real self, the conscience is never seen in its entirety. What people are really like is what this play is about. It is undoubtably the cleverest play that has come from the Scarborough playwright. People are definitely not what they seem.

So let us wet your appetite, but not give the plot away. Nicola, played by Melanie Gutteridge, is a disillusioned wife married to a Hurrah Henry, ex army officer Dan, played by Stephen Beckett, who finds supposed solace propped up against a bar trying to drinking his worries away. The listening barman Ambrose, played by Andrian McLoughlin, goes home to his ageing father who needs help from a care assistant when he is out at work. Shy Estate Agent Stewart, played by Paul Kemp, is trying to sell a flat to Nicola and Dan with assistance by "born again" Christian Charlotte, played by Billie-Claire Wright, and at the end of the day goes home to his sister Imogen, played by Sarah Moyle, still looking for the man in her life. There are great performances from the cast and it would be wrong to single anyone out. Mix and wait.

Just go to see this one act play that displays itself as a film. It will go to London to replace the run of the mill plays that arrive in the capital. Is the mirror always cracked? © BA

“Private Fears in Public Places” is at the Round, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough from the 12th August until the 4th September, 2004.