LCP Reviews

Home is Where Your Clothes Are
:( For all my talk about how this site was because the newspapers were so slow on reviews, I didn't review I Remember Mama and I'm almost a week late with this one. Luckily, I took some notes on my program, so I think I'll be able to manage. First of all, good play! It's a British bedroom farce, a genre characterized by mistaken identities, constantly evolving cover stories and general misinformation about the characters' sexual history with one another. LCP has always done good by these. Cash on Delivery was a riot and we have two veterans of that show in this one, three if you include the director. So, is it as good? Well, less cross-dressing, more sex, and not as good of a tempo. :-D But we'll get all of that covered shortly. First, the plot:

Major Alan Buxton is divorced from his wife, Elizabeth, who ran off with his best friend from the Army, Ronald Chelmsford-Smythe. Although she owns the house (and took just about everything in it), she's letting him rent it from her. And pay the cost of upkeep. As Alan had retired from the army shortly before his wife left him, he's unemployed and his pension doesn't cover the costs, so he leases the bottom floor out. And, well, Jill Palmer is only home on the weekends because she commutes to France (!) each week and Phillip Clarke, the boxing barrister only stays in the flat during the week, so he's been getting by leasing the flat to each of them exclusively and swapping the contents of the room each time. Of course, things go horribly wrong and Alan is left frantically swapping rooms about, spinning outrageous cover stories, and trying to make sure no one meets each other in their true identities. It's all done at a frantic pace and it takes exquisite timing, which brings us to the actors:

Tim Smith as Major Alan Buxton - What can one say about Tim that hasn't been said already? He's a superb actor with excellent timing who puts his heart and soul into his work. While I've enjoyed his serious roles, I think this kind of comedy is his forte. He's so earnest about his roles and his looks of shock and dismay are to die for. In addition, important for this genre, he's got a believable accent, even when raising and lowering his voice or changing moods, something many actors seem to struggle with. This show, he's definitely going to lose a few pounds, not that he has much to lose as stick thin as he is, running about swapping drawers, clothing, and bathing supplies. To his credit, I don't think a single item was dropped outside of the few cases where the plot called for it. I normally try to balance out the praise with helpful criticism, but I really can't think of anything bad to say.

Tracy VanWinkle as Jill Palmer - I would venture to put her forward as the next most major character in the play. As an initially unwitting participant of this swapping of identities, she does an excellent job of confused bewilderment and righteous ire when called for in the script. Like Tim, she's got a good accent and I don't think I heard it slip the entire night. An excellent job for a newcomer to our theater. Closest I can come to criticism is that at times, her face went utterly blank when she wasn't an active participant in a conversation. I might not have noticed where I not one with a wandering eye, but her character just kind of dropped briefly when the focus was off of her.

Charles W. Hupp as Phillip Clarke - Charlie is another one of our veterans of the theater. He was in Cash on Delivery and once again he delivers. Another solid accent here, although we'd expect no less of him. Charlie puts a lot of himself into his character and always does excellent in roles like this which require a mixture of arrogance and irritation. He has a lot of physical presence on stage too. The times when he wheeled about, fist raised, you half expected him to actually start whaling on poor Tim on-stage. My only real complaint is that he has a tendency to sound somewhat detached while on stage. When he's delivering lines in a calm mood, he has a tendency to sound like he's actually delivering lines rather than speaking them normally.

Vickie Maddux as Elizabeth Chlemsford-Smythe - Vickie is an absolute delight on stage. Many actors, faced with playing a woman who'd left her husband for his best friend and left him destitute in the process, would have played it as a cold-hearted bitch. Instead, Vickie comes off as someone desperately trying to convince themselves they're happy with how things turned out, perhaps a bit dotty and prone to being easily misled. She actually comes off as a halfway sypathetic character out there. And when she gets angry... Vickie is a sweet person when calm, but when she gets angry on stage, she's like a force of nature; you actually kind of quail back, forgetting she's acting. Her performance in the show was awesome, but for some reason, many of her scenes dragged a little. Perhaps it's just the lines she's given by the script, but some scenes like when she was setting up for vacuuming or when she was ranting about her husband while brandishing the rug-beater, the tempo of the show slowed down and lost me a bit.

Rick Fields as Ronald Chelmsford-Smythe - I'll admit I was a bit worried about Rick. I've heard stories about his acting, specifically a tendency to over-act and miss lines. I'm suspecting that either the rumors were exaggerated or that this role simply suited him. He's a bit larger-than-life in real life and on stage, I suspect his characters become the same way. I think he did an excellent job playing Ronald. While the character definitely had some over-the-top moments (I was fearful for the bed end-table. I've heard stories of what happened to a coffee table with him onstage in one play), there were also some fairly calm parts which I think he did a good job acting out. In short, I really have no complaints about him or his acting this time.

Richard A. Clendenen as Humpherey Bennett Q.C. - Richard is relatively new to LCP, his only role so far was Barry in The Boys Next Door (which apparently is going to OCTA this year). Good job, very funny. I only really had two comments. One, his accent wandered. A lot. While not everyone does accents, it kind of broke the spell of the show for me. I almost wonder if the director ought to have asked him to skip the accent and let people fill it in within their own heads, as they're wont to do. The other thing is that, as with Charlie, he has a tendency to actually sound like he's delivering lines. It worked well for him as Barry in The Boys Next Door, where his character essentially was acting out a role, but here it didn't suit him as well. Still, a very funny guy.

Erin Rish as Brenda Bennett - Another newcomer to our stage, she did a good job at her role, playing the confused fiancée of Phillip. (For some reason, British bedroom farce always seems to bring in the fiancée in the second act, ensuring that the story is plenty confusing by the time they come in) You could sense a fair amount of chemistry between her and Phillip in the show and her changes in moods according to the escalating situation were good. She was a bit stiff at times, but she is new here.

Tina Locke as Jacqueline - >:-| So much which I can't say for fear of spoiling plot... Tina is well suited to her role. Her mischevious spirit does her well in her role. She did an excellent job. The only catch I can think of is that her accent was pretty iffy and at times, I think she devoted so much effort to trying to shore up the crumbling accent that she didn't put her full force of character behind her lines. Nevertheless, a genuinely memorable performance.

Possible spoilers ahead - fair warning
My overall impression of the play was pretty good. The actors were well-suited to their roles and meshed well together. The set design by Dr. Phil Graham was excellent; in particular, the free hinge of the kitchen door and the sliding door to the wardrobe were nice touches in particular which made you understand their nature even before characters made mention of their function. The lighting was good, even across all of the characters without any noticeable hotspots or shadowed areas. The sound was decent. I'm not sure if it was the choice of sound effects or the equipment, but the sound was tinny and a little bit too loud a good bit of the time. Also, all sounds came from SL, which was kind of disorienting when it was the phone ringing, as the phone was center stage. The costuming was simple, but quite adequate. The biggest problem in my opinion was timing. A show like this requires a rapid-fire pace, moving from one line to the other, leaving the audience too breathless even to laugh until a particular series of jokes is done. Unfortunately, the pace kept slowing down, most noticeably during the last scene were all of the characters are stating what they believe to have happened. Ideally, the lines should snap one after another, almost overlapping. Instead, there were pauses of about half a second in between lines which seriously broke the tempo of the show. I wish I could say it was confined to this section of the show, but it happened in other places. Maybe the actors were holding for expected laughter. Anyhow, overall, a very good show. It's mainly humorous, but there are some very touching points in it where the madcap comedy gracefully fade back to allow a tender moment before the slapstick ensues once more. I'm considering getting another ticket, perhaps seeing the show again in the second weekend. If so, I'll be sure to keep you guys posted. Assuming I actually have an audience out there...

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