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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
The Lying Kind
Verdict: Farce and social comment
The Lying Kind is 2 hours of farce and drama from a cast of 8 (4F, 4M), in 2 acts with interval.
Two police officers need to tell an elderly couple that their daughter has been killed in a car crash. A vigilante is trying to discover the identity of a paedophile. The action takes place in a cartoon-like world mixing farce and comic misunderstandings with an undertow of earthbound reality - child abuse and senile dementia.
The police are pantomime constables, tall and shorter - Gobbel Jacob Tindle and Blunt Nick Enstone respectively. Elderly parent Balthasar Conner (Julian Lamoral-Roberts) is on the verge of a heart attack; his wife Garson Conner (Ros Liddiard) drifts between sanity and delusion. They believe it's their dog that's dead. Should the police enlighten them, and risk death and madness? Local vicar Reverend Shandy (Alec Walters) wants to blurt the truth - what to do about him? Paedophile tracker Gronya (Rosie Mainwaring) is looking for testicles to castrate - any testicles. Her daughter (Emily Woodward) has lost her dog. And there's an unexpected visitor (Virginia Angus). Also, it's Christmas.
Sets are effective. There's a mobile front-door assembly for the opening exterior scene. There's a superbly-designed sitting-room interior, with furniture and accessories that feel exactly right for this couple's home.
It's a difficult point to make, but farce can work best played tight to reality, or at any rate tight to something. Tonight's production - perhaps because it's the last night of the run, is a bit loose, a bit flabby. There are what sound like fluffed lines from time to time from Nick Enstone's Constable Blunt - or it may be the style of playing - though he obviously has comedic expertise. The play seems to depend on the dynamic between the constables, and it doesn't come off tonight with the necessary strength. Jacob Tindle as Constable Gobbel clearly also has comedy in the blood, but the character at times seems be flapping in the wind. In part this is due to the poor quality of the writing, in part to lax direction.
Rosie Mainwaring's Gronya is a shrieking banshee, a powderkeg of aggressive menace. She's a powerful dramatic actor and there is a strong impact in her performance. However, the direction fails to reign in and balance her character with the production, so that the result feels overblown. Emily Woodward brings an endearing poignancy to Carol - oddly, because the character is not particularly sympathetic, but it's there in the performance by this fine actor.
Elderly Mrs Garson Conner is played by the very much younger Ros Liddiard. It's an intriguing performance. This hugely-enjoyable actor puts a warmth and obvious charm into the character from the acting, but the character itself doesn't convince strongly from the script. Alec Walters clearly knows he has outright caricature with Reverend Shandy and runs with the two-dimensional. He gives a full-bore comic performance, aided by a wonderfully fruity voice.
Highlight of the night is Julian Lamoral-Roberts as Balthasar Conner. It's a quiet masterclass in comedy - and dramatic - acting. Nothing is overdone, and Julian Lamoral-Roberts works with the script, keeping his characterisation pared to its core, with delivery tied sparsely back to the words provided. His speech listing the deaths of relatives is the night's comedy pinnacle - real, belly-laugh stuff due partly to some excellent writing and exact direction, but more to an outstanding performance.
There's a fine comedy pairing from Julian Lamoral-Roberts as Balthasar Conner and Jacob Tindle as Constable Gobbel. The scenes in which they are alone together - including the one above - are well-written for comedy, and there's an interesting dynamic between the two actors that works very effectively in these scenes. The appearance by Virginia Angus is brief but effective.
The play doesn't work very well. It's not fully farce, and it's very simple drama. Brilliant farces tend to be well-written, and this only has flashes of interesting writing, but very little sparkle (just the one scene above). Passages of the dialogue clunk along like a broken exhaust trailing in the road, and it feels in need of a 25-30% edit. But even then, what's happening in the play is not gripping. Farces have to glide effortlessly (as here), and often work best when the characters are apparently unaware of the comedy. Injecting social realism into farcical comedy is a clever idea - Joe Orton's Entertaining Mr Sloane did it, though the comedy there was nearer reality. The Lying Kind isn't that calibre of play, and it palls. The opening scene is long-drawn out, and doesn't compel. The rest is mediocre.
Director and producer David Alfred picks a notoriously difficult genre for his first professional production. It's a brave thing to do, and if more directors took alarming risks like this, there'd be a lot more good theatre in the long run. He has a clear gift at work. What seems wrong with this production, apart from the play, is the lack of balance between the performances, the lack of an overall vision for the whole, the lack of careful concentration of every stage of each performance. Performances are allowed to overflow. Pace flags and speeds independently of what the play needs at particular points. The same could be said about many plays - it's easier to pick holes in productions than to make them. It's clear that David Alfred has a fine future as director and producer, along with this talented company of actors.
Cast Credits: (alpha order): Virginia Angus - Carol Conner. Nick Enstone - Constable Blunt. Ros Liddiard - Garson Conner. Rosie Mainwaring - Gronya. Julian Lamoral-Roberts - Balthasar Conner. Jacob Tindle - Constable Gobbel. Alec Walters - Reverend Shandy. Emily Woodward - Carol.
Company Credits: Writer - Anthony Neilson. Producer / Director - David Alfred. Stage Manager - Anne Schuerman. Lighting Design / Sound Technician - Karis Tanner. Marketing & Promotion - Jennifer Raymond. Set Builder - Simon Plumridge. Photography - Angela Large. IT Design - Sharon Nathan & Tuesday Nathan. Company - Dangerous Dave Productions.
END
John Park
reviewed Sunday 4 Dec 05 / Clerkenwell Theatre
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012
www.fringereport.com
