An argument about a one-legged man with either shaving foam on his face or is it a white beard? Football or tortoise under his arm? Blind or sighted? Mother with a fixation for tubas - whose mother is she? A PC with vivid imagination and a Chief Inspector with a secret.

Professional dancers Reg (Sarah Hill) and Thelma (Hannah Moore) Harris are getting ready for an event and they are running late. In her posh frock, Thelma is scrabbling on the floor looking for the bits used in the now broken counterbalance for the light, which is why Reg is standing on a chair, wearing green waders to remove the light bulb so he can plug in an iron. Mother (Kate Griffiths) is asleep under a sheet on the ironing board; the iron heats up burning her foot. The grouchy old woman makes it clear that she doesn't approve of Reg as she hops off to have a bath. Mayhem follows as peeping policeman, PC Holmes (Rachel Bull), gets the wrong end of the stick and calls out Inspector Foot (Sophie Hainsworth).

Reg and Thelma argue about whether the one-legged man they saw earlier was a white-bearded, old, man, with tortoise under his arm; or Thelma's idea of a footballer, with shaving foam on his face, carrying a football. Mother returns muttering about the light not working in the bathroom; hopping off, she gets her tuba. Another row erupts between Reg and Thelma about Mother; they disagree about whose mother she actually is. The old woman sits down and starts to play the tuba - badly. The two coppers barge through the front door; accusations and misunderstandings start. Foot accuses Reg of being involved in 'The Crippled Minstrel Caper' and that there was a witness to the crime. And what did they know about the one-legged criminal they saw outside the Tate Gallery? The couple explain that they know nothing of the robbery and that they were only at the Tate at Mother's insistence; she wanted to see the tubas featured in the paintings of René Magritte (1898-1967).

Based on After Magritte by Tom Stoppard (b 1937), this one-act farce is about misunderstanding, personal interpretations of an event witnessed by Reg and Thelma. The play takes on the surrealism of Magritte, with visual references to his work - a bowler hat, an apple, a tuba. It may feel like a jumble of incidents, but - like a jigsaw - it all neatly fits together.

Sarah Hill as Reg carries off a smarmy arrogance that any comic actor would be proud of - down to the pencil-thin moustache and irritating laugh. Hannah Moore as his long-suffering wife has touches of Sybil Fawlty in her mannerisms. Kate Griffiths's crotchety old woman is funny and, while both Rachel Bull's and Sophie Hainsworth's characterisations are colorful, their comic timing needs to be tighter.

Cast Credits: (alpha order): Rachel Bull - PC Holmes. Kate Griffiths - Mother. Sophie Hainsworth - Chief Inspector Foot. Sarah Hill - Reg Harris. Hannah Moore - Thelma.

Company Credits: Writer - Tom Stoppard. Director - Sally Boon. Set Design - Pete Viccars. Lighting - Louise Christie. Costumes - Cast. Technical Operator - uncredited. Producer - uncredited. Company - The High School Herons.

END

(c) Lea Harris 2008

reviewed Tuesday 5 August 08 / Greenside

Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012

www.fringereport.com