Penny (Imogen Slaughter) and Miles (James Lance) are the new parents of baby Jack. They're a middle-class couple living in London, with noisy neighbours on benefits (welfare) who drive Miles wild. Their music (Wichita Lineman, Barry White) drives Miles mad, literally. From being a bit eccentric he graduates to beyond the edge, buying an electric wheelchair off eBay and pursuing the neighbours with a large candlestick. He sits on the wheelchair with an imitation sceptre, bicycle helmet for a crown, and a stab vest, and lives progressively in his imagination.

Dan (Adrian Bower) is Penny's and Miles's friend from university, and a couple of things more. He's just gone into AA (Alcoholics Anonymous, a sobriety help group), with Penny - she's been going for years. And he wants to give her one, but is fraught with ambiguity because they're also friends, and he's Miles's best friend. So much so that Miles - very reluctantly - lets him massage him. Rough Northerner Dan has embraced massage thanks to his wacko American girlfriend voluptuous Layla (Sia Berkeley), whose book explaining dreams is regularly consulted (Dan's reflections on his dreams, which come between a couple of scenes, get a bit boring, but there aren't many of them). Layla is expert on crank spirituality and healing, and disappears to massage uptight Penny - after Penny's apologised for snogging Dan, that is. Pert Layla's flirted with Miles, and Miles fantastises about not shagging her - surely the most original kind of fantasy ever - while imagining he's the messianic politician who will lead and save the country, with Layla as his TV-interviewer-turned-campain-director. Where will it end? Will Layla pork Penny? Penny and Dan? Miles and Dan? Will Miles take over the world? 90 minutes with no interval pass fast as the cleverly-stitched-together weaving of fantasy and even more bonkers reality reveals the complexity of apparently ordinary lives.

The whole play is put together in a very integrated, complete way: script, design, direction, acting. Marcus Markou's script is taut, elegant, with graceful language and some very funny lines. The script is clever in creating the opportunity for an outrageous range of stretched reality, while keeping it believable. The weaving of waking dream and what is actually happening is cleverly done, so that it's always clear which is which, and neither is boring. Adam Barnard's direction keeps a strong grip on this functioning at two levels, and keeps a galloping pace. He uses a seat on the stage to store small extra props which help the action, clever choices of costume - the changes, sometimes on stage, between them - and devices such as the electric wheelchair's ability to reposition Miles and hence the actors' groupings - to help achieve this. The fairly short scenes and the music and lighting moods between them - the work of lighting designer Mike Robertson, sound designer Steve Mayo, and composer Peter Michaels - keep interest and a sense of seeing many facets to the drama. Designer Vicki Fifield's set is clever and functional - a white floor with two seats, and a white translucent back wall. This can be opaque, take projection, and become translucent, which gives wide scope for new settings to the many scenes.

There's an exceptionally strong cast, with casting by Stephen Moore. Imogen Slaughter delivers Penny as a delightful character, a young mother fraught with love for her child and husband, lust for a friend, a strong sense of morality, and with lots of seriously-played humour. Adrian Bower evokes Dan's Northern characteristic without hamming them - his Dan is well aware of the stereotypes and plays with them - and finds a lot of ambiguity in his desires and wish to do the right thing. James Lance has many lines as Miles, who is the focus of the play - though all the characters get pretty much the same stage time and importance in it, a great strength of the script - all delivered convincingly. His Miles has a huge range, from manic to lethargic, and the character's life as a fantasy politician gives an extra dimension which James Lance presents with extraordinary panache. It's a barnstorming performance, and throughout Miles's widely varying moods, completely credible. Sia Berkeley presents Layla as pretty, funny, and bubbly, but under it all shrewd, missing nothing; her TV presenter is a contrast in accent (very RP instead of American) and a clever balance between a character in a dream and a believable human being; both characterisations are delivered with grace and elegance.

Cast Credits: (alpha order): Sia Berkeley - Layla / TV Interviewer. Adrian Bower - Dan / TV Presenter. James Lance - Miles / Politician. Imogen Slaughter - Penny / Prime Minister.

Company Credits: Writer - Marcus Markou. Director - Adam Barnard. Designer - Vicki Fifield. Lighting Designer - Mike Robertson. Sound Designer - Steve Mayo. Composer - Peter Michaels. Technical Operator - uncredited. Casting - Stephen Moore. Production Manager - Gary Beestone for Giraffe Live. Stage Manager - Anna Kerr. Press & Publicity - Paul Sullivan. General Manager - James Seabright and Kat Portman. Production Insurance - Robert Israel (Gordon & Co). Web and Video Design - The Guild Network (www.theguildnetwork.com). Publicity Design - Snow Creative (www.snowcreative.co.uk). Publicity Photography - Eric Richmond (www.ericrichmond.net). Thanks to - Veronica Humphris, Mike Shepherd, Ed Stoppard, Sarah Paul, Pip Pickering, Colin Howdle, Tim Lone, James Rawlings, Amber Agar, Chris Porter, Ben Stanley, Samantha Dakin, Paul Savident, Katy Griffiths, Trafalgar Studios staff, Glen Davidson (Outlet), St George's Church Bloomsbury, Stuart Piper (Cole Kitchenn), Sarah Barnfield (Price Gardner Management), Gemma Cox (Independent Talent Group Ltd), Anna Dudley (Markham and Froggatt Ltd), Jean Diamond (Diamond Management). Producer - James Seabright and Kat Portman. Company - Ordinary Dreams Limited. Website - www.ordinarydreams.co.uk. James Seabright - Theatre Production and General Management: Associate Producer - Kat Portman. Press Representative - Kate Gambrell. Production Assistants - Carla Morris, Jacob Wagen. Interns - Anne Roberts, Tom Atkins. Website - www.seabright.info. Trafalgar Studios: Theatre Manager - Dean Stewart. Deputy Theatre Manager - Caroline Gooding. Technical Manager - Benjamin Evans. Box Office Sales Manager - Martin Crosier. Marketing Contact: Senior Marketing Associate (ATG London) - Victoria Brown. General Manager (Ambassador Theatre Group - ATG London) - Russell Miller.

END

John Park

reviewed Thursday 14 May 2009 / Trafalgar Studios 2, London UK

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