Peter (Alex Barclay) is a playwright, mainly would-be, with a history of duff romances in his private life. Charles (Sion Tudor Owen) is an out-of-date actor, his moderate successes long gone by. The two men have quarelled working together on a past project. Now Charles has a plan. He's trying to have sex with his much younger new object of desire Geraldine (Abi Titmuss). He reckons that a play written by Peter for him and Geraldine will (a) achieve sexual intercourse and (b) make him a star, both interrelated.

Peter's misgivings lapse as sultry Geraldine moves onto him. Loyalty to Charles also fades as he accepts Geraldine's rewriting ideas - with a bigger part for her. The play-within-a-play starts as a kidnap drama in which Peter's character is kidnapped in Moscow, with Geraldine's and Charles's characters as his torturers and potential killers. Under Geraldine's influence, action is transposed to somewhere hot - Argentina. As the time to stage the play in the West End approaches, jealousies and switches of loyalties have reached volcanic status. When it comes, the final version of the performance doesn't simply take place, it erupts.

Writer Lynn Howes's script has an ingenious structure and unexpected pivots. The arrangement of the night is in two parts with a short interval. But because the play-within-a-play is presented three times, each with strong differences which contain the real action, it is essentially a three-act play. It exploits the full potential of the three-act structure to deliver a clever ending. There's subtle work too with controlling behaviour - the use of people's shortened names to irritate - and of manipulation, using a wide range of mental games. It's a perky satire; a sharp, strident look at showbusiness and celebrity.

Designer Lucy Read uses simple sets which allow quick changes between the many scenes. Her Argentine setting is quietly evocative: a faded Argenitian poster on the back wall, painted boards nailed across window shutters. Clothes feel generally right, with perhaps a touch of humour in Peter's stereotypical brown corduroy jacket, being a writer. Director Emma Taylor keeps the action moving breathlessly from start to end. Performances are extremely physical, with the actors moving energetically for much of the play. There's a lot of dialogue in the script, a lot to get in, and the often rapid delivery combined with frequent movement suits the quick changes in the characters' perceptions of each other.

It's a good-looking cast with clever contrasts in physical size, well-suited to the comedy of the script. Sion Tudor Owen delivers an aimably podgy and medium-height Charles capable of huge fits of rage and extreme expression alongside Charles's more reflective moments. Alex Barclay's tall lanky Peter goes well physically with Charles as a kind of end-of-pier comic couple, and his Peter is a believable character building from manic reasonableness to raw mania. Abi Titmuss brings out Geraldine's manipulative essence. She works the strands of Geraldine into the delivery of a flesh-and-blood complex person, a credible catalyst driving the play's switchback turns.

Cast Credits: (alpha order): Alex Barclay - Peter. Sion Tudor Owen - Charles. Abi Titmuss - Geraldine.

Company Credits: Writer - Lynn Howes. Director - Emma Taylor. Designer - Lucy Read. Lighting Designer - Damian Robertson. Sound Designer - George Dennis. Technical Operator - Damian Robertson. Assistant Director - Paul Mushumani. Fight Director - David Wheatley. Stage Manager - Amy Jewel. Production Assistant - Alexandra Smith. Photographer - Lubo (www.stefanlubo.com). Graphic Designer - Jon Oldershaw. Set Builder - Niall Mulcahy. PR - Prospero (www.prosperoarts.co.uk). Executive Producer - Lynn Howes. Executive Producer - Stefan Lubomirski de Vaux. Producer - Sonja Rein. Company - In Her Own Right Productions. Company - Canal Café Theatre.

Thanks to: [Angels] - Michel Bardy, Jennie Buckman, Piotr Chlapowski, Alex Corner, Mark Duval, Philippa Harkness, Robin Hellier, Charles Jonscher, Jan Lubomirski-Lanckoronski, Donald Macgregor, Tom Merchant, Lorraine Neale, Eugenie Nickerson, Caroline Perkins, David Perkins, Edmondo di Robilant, Maya di Robilant, Aleksander Schneider, Katherine Schneider, Peter Wolff, TH Woodcraft, Charlotte Wood-Ascott, Christina Zoltowska, Zygmund Zoltowski. [Thanks for helping in the development of Stage Fright to] - Min Chung, Ruth Fitzharris, Johnny Hansler, Sean Garvey, Sarah-Louise Young, Mike McNulty, Nigel Cole, Kate Guinness, Sofie Mason, Prince of Wales Theatre, Leicester Square Theatre, Robert Taylor, Fran and all at The Bridge House pub, India Rakusen for Canal Café Theatre, ASAD, Jack Rebaldi.

END

John Park

reviewed Wednesday 3 February 2010 / Canal Café Theatre, London UK

Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2010

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