THEATRE REVIEWS

Do not go to see this play if you are a first time holiday flyer, or maybe you should. John Godber has taken another subject from everyday life — people’s fear of flying. Set in a small provincial airport, the characters arrive, each driven by their own phobia, for a course aimed to steady their nerves. We are all familiar with the designer Pip Lekenby’s seats come beds joined together with small tables for the prolonged use of the the travellers. Aircraft land and takeoff outside the window as the audience duck from the noise.

The first act is in twelve scenes which are needed to show the passage of time, but tend to become irritating and appear to slow the momentum, not that it is ever fast. Anne, played by Sarah Parks, arrives very early so as not to be late, with her nervous husband Dave, played by James Hornsby. The usual remarks related to flying are exchanged in their conversations as they while away the excess of time. They are joined by a collection of nervous types, Kiki Kendrick takes the parts of Kelly and Fern, Joshua Richards is the Welsh Dr Jones and Stew, the regular Madge is played by Christine Cox, the big man Dougie is played by Adrian Hood and Gilly Tomkins plays Stella from Milton Keynes. All drift in and are kept waiting by staff who are inwardly unsympathetic to their nerves, but are not the sort of airline staff that you would like to rely on in an emergency. How the stress affects people reappears in act two as Anne and Dave’s relationship is put in jeopardy in a scene which seems somehow out of place. The next scene brings the play back together as a late booking holiday flight takes off.

The audience sat patiently through the play and laughed at things that they secretly recognised from their flying experiences. That is what this play is about, self awareness that is hidden and dealt with by laughing at it when it happens to someone else. Try it — it may cure your phobia. © BA

“Fly Me to the Moon” is at the Round in Scarborough from the 11th March to the 27th of March, 2004 and continues touring.