Alphabetical Order *** TNT
Alphabetical Order
This article was first published on
tntonline.co.uk on Friday 24 April 2009 16:32 GMT.
The Hampstead theatre continues its 50th birthday celebrations with a moderately enjoyable revival of Michael Frayn’s hit comedy which started life at this address in 1975, then went on to win an Evening Standard award when it transferred to the West End. Human nature hasn’t changed much over the intervening years, but the setting in which his characters find themselves – the cuttings library of a provincial newspaper – now has the historic whiff of a bygone era. Nowadays, background information can be gleaned with the click of the mouse, but, when Frayn was a reporter, the articles clipped manually from publications on a daily basis were a vital resource.
The trouble with Lucy’s library, though, is that the idiosyncratic filing system she inherited is in total chaos – even the alphabet seems to have taken on its own crazy logic – and staff are as likely to pop in for coffee as for information. Help arrives in the form of immaculate young Lesley, a humourless second-jobber with a compulsive desire to create order and a disagreeable habit of putting her new colleagues into neat little categories, too.
Frayn’s characters are all recognisable stereotypes – Jonathan Guy Lewis’s indecisive academic turned leader writer who sees so many sides to everything that he can never commit; the widowed features editor with her sights set on Gawn Grainger’s alcoholically monosyllabic hack; the chatty messenger nearing retirement. And the intended humour of the first act is far too forced.
But thing’s improve after the interval when the frantically ingratiating pace slows and reality bites, and Imogen Stubbs is perfectly cast as much-loved but scatty Lucy, with her £5 fur coat from Oxfam and a messed up social life to match her disorganised library.
Hampstead, Eton Avenue, NW3 3EU (020 7722 9301) until 16th May (£15-£25 -under 26’s £10)
No comments:
Post a Comment