Sydney (Chris Paddon) and Arabella (Nic Lamont) are London-based foxes captured by Fox Liberationists (Kerry Norman) and dumped far away in the countryside. They meet a Bunny (Kerry Norman), a gay Fly called Nigel (Kerry Norman), a Mink (Kerry Norman), and Chickens (Kerry Norman) on their journey through unknown land, trying to find their way back to London.

Arabella and Sydney are upper-class foxes used to city streets. Faced with the countryside, they are at a loss. They don't recognise a rabbit as food, hate the silence, and concepts such as digging a hole in which to shelter are far-off memories from a grandparent's tale. It's a difficult, disorientating place - they pine for familiar urban life.

The play is mainly comedy, mainly mini-satires on strands of life. These include gay life and stereotypes, class differences, country folk v urban sophisticates, food snobbery, the validity of animal liberation, marital and relationship tensions. Comedy is variably successful. Mainly it is gently-amusing rather than laugh-out-loud.

A sketch between Arabella & Sydney and fly Nigel ('Even when I was a maggot, I didn't quite fit in') - is perhaps the most successful, and it has a good song to go with it. Though the idea puns on a line from a UK TV series, it works well by itself. Nigel's song The Only Gay Fly In The World repeats its theme perhaps one time too often and could be that one verse shorter.

There's an early song, used also as a dance number. The dance is OK; the song doesn't feel particularly good or interesting and could be omitted without loss. There's a poor-quality opening of an animal liberationist giving a clichéd statement of intent to capture and release foxes. It adds nothing, goes on too long, with asides to an unseen camera operator, and dulls the impact of the show. Lights up on Arabella (licking her thighs, in dazzling red evening dress, elegant) and Sydney (formally dressed in black and white, debonair), each with magnificent brush (tail) is terrific - and would make a far more effective opening.

Kerry Norman creates clever and intriguing individual characterisations of a number of personalities: his Nigel the fly, and sinuous Mink, are particularly effective. Chris Paddon gives a fine performance as handsome aristocratic Sydney. His Sydney is an English gentleman (who later confronts an unexpected inner demon) transported not just from London, but from several centuries in the past. He does shout a lot. It's a 100 decibel performance - which gets wearing, and lower volume would be more endurable. Arabella is quite loud too - it may be something foxes do. Nic Lamont is superb as Arabella; her pretty Arabella is a full-on naughty vixen, elegant, superior - but vulnerable too, and with sweetness; it's a touching characterisation.

The storyline (by Philippa Tatham, who also directs) provides a thread for the characters to show some depth, and for a number of set-pieces to take place. It has a definite ending - the sound is a bit mis-matched so that the actors rather drown out the necessary voice-over in tonight's performance - which seals the play off crisply. The script could do with a sharp edit of around 10% - the dialogue uses a lot of clichés whose absence could perk up scenes which are already quite perky.

Cast Credits: (alpha order): Nic Lamont - Arabella. Kerry Norman - Fox Liberationist / Bunny / Nigel, The Only Gay Fly in the World / Mink / Chicken. Chris Paddon - Sydney. Voiceovers - Cast & Crew.

Company Credits: Writer - Philippa Tatham. Director - Philippa Tatham. Musical Director - Kara McLean. Choreographer - Kara McLean. Music Composer - David Slinn. Music Arranger - Colin Guthrie. Music Recorder - Colin Guthrie. Costume Designer - Joanne Haines. Artwork Designer - Joanne Haines. Sound Designer / Operator - Phillip Ley. Lighting Designer / Operator - Jane Cahill. Producer - Philippa Tatham. Company - Dirty Martini. Thanks To: Liz Slinn (sponsor and backbone); Lucrezia Slinn; Laurence Tuerk; The Tower Theatre; John Dunne and London Irish Theatre; The London Irish Centre; The Grand Union, Kentish Town; The Old Crown Pub.

END

John Park

reviewed Wednesday 11 August 2010 / Rosemary Branch Theatre, London UK

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