THEATRE REVIEWS

Now what do we have here? A play written in the seventies using the techniques of the day which is starting to show its age. It took a retrospective look at one person's life through their teens, thirty nothing and beyond, starting in 1941 travelling through time to 1967 and set in Bristol, although it could have been anywhere in Britain.

It came over as a list of words and phrases used to set the time and place, which seemed to have no real meaning to the players. The actors smoked, imposing cigarette smoke upon the audience, an imposition that had no real bearing on the story. Mistakes were made with the staging and props, the most noticeable being the white booted roller skates — plastic was not in use for wheels, they would have been made of wood; also there were no seams up the back of the stockings.

That said, what of the plot? Frank (Ben Fox) acts as story teller, relating how he came to terms with the time in which he lived, his likes and dislikes and how he coped with his close family — a problem passed from generation to generation. All the incidents were taken from the times and were common to all who had experienced them. Many in the audience will have had their memory jogged. We see the father, a commercial traveller, relaying the attitude of the day and changing with the times as the play progresses. We have flash backs and fantasy to help the plot along, but nothing keeps the attention for long and the play comes to an end with a rendering of the Flanagan and Allen song “Down Forget Me Not Lane” sung by the cast.

The audience had walked into the theatre and into the foyer looking at the photographs of the actors as they went about their tasks in the scenes from this production, but alas non can be displayed here because the press office did not send them, despite assurances that they would.

Pip Leckenby supplied the set and Bob Eaton the direction for this look back in time and nostalgia. The audience showed appreciation at the end, but will they remember much of what they have see ? © BA

“FORGET-ME-NOT-LANE” is in repertory at the Round in Scarborough from the 24th May to the 25th of August, 2007. 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.