REVIEWS REVIEWS
Mixed Feelings is an intriguing new play by Eric Chappell. The two halves head in very different directions and the audience is kept guessing throughout. Despite the fact that it handles the sensitive subject of a man’s re-entry into society after a sex change operation, there are no clichés and no awkward moments. The entire play revolves around Vernon, superbly played by Paul Nicholas. The first half sees him at home, just after his return to his wife Jan, played by Mary Tamm, and daughter Zoe, Sarah McCardie, in British suburbia. He has been AWOL in Casablanca for six months and each person with whom he has contact has a different theory about his disappearance. His wife is convinced he had an affair, his best friend thinks that he was having a mid-life crisis and his boss believes that he suffered a nervous breakdown. The situations in which the truth is revealed to each person are witty and hilarious. Vernon spends the second half dressed in drag, which enables him to raise easy laughs but also some great one-liners.
The set by Michael Holt is very good - the entire play takes place in the front room of Vernon and Jan's suburban semi, which gives it the feeling of a television sitcom. Hailing from the sitcom “Just Good Friends” Paul Nicholas is perfectly at home in this environment. His wife is a great counterbalance and she is played by Mary Tamm as a straight talking, no-nonsense women, who appears to take the revelations in her stride. Her poise and authority are key to ensuring that the play does not turn into a farce. The entire cast is in fact excellent, making the most of the imaginative and well-paced script and well directed by Jeremy Meadow. John Benfield plays Vernon's best friend Eddie with energy, whilst Alan Granville’s interpretation of Fletcher, Vernon’s prejudiced, racist, sexist boss, is sublime. Mixed Feelings is thought provoking and a joy to watch. It begs the question, what would you do if a key person in your life changed not just their appearance, but everything about themselves, including hobbies, partner, and their sex? © MW
“Mixed Feelings” is in Richmond on the 10th of May until the 15th of May, 2004.
