A riot of fun and silliness

IF YOU have ever wondered what actors do when they want to enjoy themselves both on and off stage, trot along to the Queen's for the next couple of weeks.

Curses, by Julian Ronnie and Paul Miller, a brief nod to Oscar Wilde's Canterville Ghost, lets them all have full reign to the chuckle muscles and tickling sticks - and they really did have a lot of fun.

Mind you, so did the audience, but it was more like, 'ahhhh, look they are enjoying themselves'.

With the inclusion of Steve Edwin and Chris MacDonnell in the line-up, there was little doubt what was in show directors' Bob Carlton and Matt Devitt's minds as the opening scene went straight into a good gallop around the stage.

Ghosts and things that went bump in the night, groaningly bad jokes, and those little one-liners that let the actors know if the audience is with them. And we were with them all the way.

Steve and Chris are the chief demolition experts for the pantomime, playing the ugly sisters as only these two can. I got the impression this play was perhaps a precursor for the panto, as the well tried and trusted routines crackled through the air between these two masters of the one-liners.

Steve played the crusty Lord Canterville of doubtful vintage, who needed counselling when someone turned on the hoover and food mixer, and Chris was the loudmouth American whose long lost descendant, the Black Knight, won the castle in a jolly joust with Sir Simon Canterville more than 500 years ago.

The wardrobe department, in the form of Aimee Easter, deserves a special mention for securing, or probably capturing, a shirt of such ballistic design and coloration for Chris, that were it shot into space, it could have been seen on the surface of Mars without any artificial aid.

After such a blinding season at the Queen's, I sat in the auditorium trying to work out the reasoning behind putting on such a strange whimsy. As well as Steve and Chris, it carried the quality cast of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Stuart Organ, the multi-talented Allison Harding and Catherine Hamilton, and the only thing I could think of was the kindness of Bob and Matt in letting the Cut to the Chase gang off the lead to go out and enjoy themselves, and believe me, they do.

Senses

I am often floored by the 'out of the box' thinking that goes on in Billet Lane, that challenges the senses, often drops great surprises, but never fails in the original remit of the theatre, to entertain.

What it did do was show Stuart Organ in two fascinating formats - his seriously major role as the outwardly dominated husband in Virginia Woolf, the echoes of which are still reverberating in appreciative circles, and in Curses, playing a butler of Jeeves proportions with not only a quick eye for comedy, but a passable impression of Elvis... well perhaps I lie a little here.

Catherine Hamilton, the young wife in Virginia Woolf who so expertly sunk into a bottle with such delicate finesse it was cruelly real, particularly as she did not have to suffer the after-effects, was, in this play, the American daughter whose knock-about routines were worth the ticket price alone.

Philip Reed played the young lord Canterville, equally blessed with the curse of cowardice of his father, and added another talent of mimicry to his long list of credits.

Apart from being a guitarist of Jimi Hendrix proportions, his repertoire of characters scored a first with a stutter that was pure Ronnie Barker.

In fact I had to look twice, and it was a lovely and worthy tribute to such a great man.

Allison Harding was unrecognisable as the brash American wife. With added lumps and bumps and a weight problem that demanded enough food to keep half of Havering going for a week, her role was as far removed from her performance in Virginia Woolf, again I had to look at the programme.

Most actors would be happy to play within a set of parameters, but Allison seems to find the largest gap and take it on.

She sang a solo of such beauty it brought the show to a dead stop as no one dared breathe for fear of missing a note. Powerful stuff.

Topping it all, the rest of the crew of Nick Lashbrook, Carol Sloman, Scott Finlay and Kevin Pallister as Sir Simon's ghost, turned it into a night of light relief, a warm oasis of silliness when the realities of the day were left outside the auditorium doors and you could forget your troubles and watch a group of serious professionals gallop, laughing and shrieking, round the park.

Curses runs until Saturday, November 26, with tickets from £9 to £17 available from the box office on 01708 443333.