It is very important to SADC that we maintain a high quality in our productions. So it is a key part of our productions that we invite a professional theatre critic to give us their opinion. Theo Spring, saw our production and this is what she thought:
“It is tempting to believe that the playwright, Joanna Murray-Smith, has actually experienced the break-up of a marriage when the husband leaves a long-standing marital home in favour of a much younger model. I say this because the in-depth knowledge of feelings expressed by Honor as her husband George says “I am leaving you” are so well scripted they seem to be relating an actual break-up.
The scene is set by George, a journalist of some note, trying to write a piece about himself, presumably for publication. David Mestecky got his hesitation to praise himself, indecision as to what to say and how not to blow his own trumpet, down to a tee, so we began to learn a little about him. Enter a determined young lady, sent by her paper to interview George, and it was clear, from the first frisson, that she had plans to begin an affair with him. Phoebe Spragg as Claudia had exactly the right approach – obviously very much her own woman, taking opportunities to touch George within the confines of the interview, a predator of the first order and beautifully delivered, leaving the audience with no doubt about her plans.
Honor, George’s wife, has been an award-winning writer in her own right, giving up the pursuance of this calling to support her husband in his career and to bring up their daughter Sophie. The demands on actor Michaela Moher to be such a wife, whilst still keeping an underlying spark of ability were believably delivered. She couldn’t believe he was leaving her, couldn’t understand why he would after such a long marriage and expressed, in such a notable scene, all that she had done throughout those years of marriage. To all of this, George could simply say “yes”.
The play is written in short scenes, set in three different venues: George and Honor’s home, Claudia’s flat and a busy pub. The set, designed by Liz and Andy Plumb, accommodated all these without crowding and was furnished appropriately for a play set between 2003 and 2006 -the Ikea chairs, the shiny bar stools, the cosy sofa. Attention to detail in the kitchen area delivered a fully plated-up dresser, and a small old-fashioned bureau in the study area all added authenticity to the era. Costumes too by Director Sheila Carr and the cast also anchored the years.
Bursting into the break-up came George and Honor’s daughter Sophie. A fireball of an entrance which Helen Wieland, in the role, kept up throughout the play, raging at her mother for the course she had taken not to pursue her own career, and to give up so much of the life she might have had, for George. Her incredulity that her father could leave her mother for someone almost the same age as herself was a recurring theme.
Many of the short scenes ended on important words, cleverly crafted by the playwright, and a swift blackout kept up the pace. Costume changes were speedily achieved and the action flowed through the different areas of the set without a pause.
There were high demands on all four actors to deliver such an emotional script, albeit that we, in the audience, could see just where the story was leading. Phoebe Spragg kept Claudia very understated – a cool customer out to get what she wanted, only to discover, having got it, that she didn’t want it after all and had destroyed a marriage en route. Michaela Moher moved Honor impressively through homely wife to calm reasoner trying to understand why, and finally to becoming her own woman once more, able to achieve in her own right. The demands on David Mestecky to undergo a gamut of emotions were fulfilled, from guilt, to passion, to becoming a ‘new man’ with Claudia and finally his disbelief that Claudia no longer wanted him and his wife had moved on without him. Helen Wieland made a real impact in Sophie’s smaller role, separately berating her parents and trying to make sense of the break-up.
Music played an important part of the play with carefully chosen pieces to introduce the scenes. Props were in the capable hands of Janet Harris.
To deliver all the very varied emotions of the play, from its start to its abrupt but inevitable ending, required acting and directing of the highest calibre and here, dealing faultlessly with the demanding number of lines together with those required emotions, both the cast and director Shelia Carr achieved riveting, high class theatrical entertainment.”
Well done to the whole SADC team that presented such a professional production.
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