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Arena Theatre Compton Acres Poole July 2002 Tim Wallace-Abbott’s production never failed to amuse, from the originality of using real people as portraits in the Picture Room scene to the outstanding larger-than-life performances. I loved the persistent scandalmongering led by Virginia Harrington’s brilliantly eccentric Mrs Candour and Lorraine Rowan’s venomous, purple-haired Lady Sneerwell, the attempted one-upmanship of Mr Crabtree (John King) and Sir Benjamin Backbite (Tim Wallace-Abbott) and the constant, resigned bickering of Sir Peter and Lady Teazle (Richard Oakley and Katharine Hart). There was humour aplenty in the efforts of Sir Oliver Surface (an excellent Ian Knight) to suss out the real characters of his nephews Joseph (Robert Walker) and Charles (a particularly energetic Neil Mathieson). Scene changes were cleverly executed and the setting was well used, with the frequent coming and going of characters in the part of the garden behind the set proper seeming as natural as visitors entering the grounds of the ‘houses’ themselves. Linda Kirkman Courtesy of the Bournemouth Daily Echo |
