I walked out of this show not quite sure whether or not I enjoyed it, but on reflection I think that I did overall. It definitely felt amateurish and a bit rough around the the edges to begin with, but after a while I was either able to see past that or got used to it and see the makings of a charming little show beneath.
I have to say though that Isabel Pollen’s (Laura) wig hairline was a source of constant distraction, because it just seemed far too high and all there was was forehead! I also found her Laura quite exhausting to watch so constantly racked with guilt and self-reproach was she. There were so few moments of happiness from the brief encounter - even when swinging from the chandeliers, which is supposed to be a moment of pure ecstasy and delight, you didn’t really get this - that I wondered why on earth she had continued seeing Alec, because he clearly wasn’t making her very happy! There is such an opportunity for character development in this show, but I felt that this was missed and instead we got a constant deer in headlights.
Jim Sturgeon’s Alec felt much more natural and believable, although the constant slipping between an English and Scottish accent was slightly unfortunate. I still didn’t get, however, any of the passion, intensity and chemistry that I was expecting. It’s a long time since I’ve seen the film, so maybe that’s how Alec and Laura are supposed to be portrayed - a quiet, subtle love - but even that didn’t quite ring true to me.
There were some nice moments of light relief from Beverley Rudd, Jos Slovick, Lucy Thackeray and Dean Nolan as Beryl, Stanley, Myrtle and Albert (respectively), but they were a little over the top and which gave the show a bit of a pantomime-esque feel. That said though, serious credit to them for some of the moves at the front of the stage when the curtain was down. There really wasn’t a lot of room, and yet not once was there a flicker of concern or apprehension about falling off the stage, despite my own!
There were also some nice and creative, yet simple, stage devices, in this show which were really quite effective. For example, the wringing out of towels to provide the sound effect for Alex and Laura wringing out their clothes after having fallen in the lake; and the toy steam train representing Alec’s train pulling out of the station. This is the stuff that drama teachers long to take their charges to so they can write about it in their exam papers!
This show is not, however, a musical as advertised; rather, it is a play with songs as scene setters and to allow scene changes. All of the above sounds mostly negative, but there was something charming, if not quite complete and neat, about this show. Definitely worth a see for being different and creative, but don’t expect greatness.