Yvonne Arnaud Theatre – until 12th October 2024
Reviewed by Heather Chalkley
3***
If you are expecting a murder mystery along the lines of Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder, you will be disappointed. Middle Ground Theatre Company has been going for almost four decades now. This play is based on their tour of the said play in the highlands and islands during the 90’s.
The story development of this comedy play within a play feels protracted and you can be forgiven for losing concentration. This is not helped by the busy set which is quite distracting. As a result, the set changes are drawn out.
This gentle farce is interspersed with plenty of laughs. In the first half you are drawn a picture of a theatre company on tour in towns across North Scotland, wherever they can get a gig. They arrive in a small Scottish town in the back of beyond with a broken van, only to find their stage is a dilapidated community hall. Hall manager Jean Murray (Eliza Langland) has a strong Scottish accent and really sets the scene with her descriptions of local characters and advisements about the failings of the hall, all delivered with a matter of fact honesty that has to be accepted. According to her the residents are glad to have them. Of course, this lays the ground for the many mishaps that ensue.
Alasdair Baker plays Alasdair McGillivray, a larger than life caricature of a Scottish landowner that sweeps in and sweeps out with gusto. Baker flips with ease into Rupert Valentine Tinglewell the stage lovely that does very little apart from fart and cause chaos! He spends most of the play wandering around in his underpants!
Luke Rhodri is convincing as the company producer Sean Farrell, trying to hold it all together, dealing with malfunctioning equipment and mediating fractured relationships. That and the lack of box office takings is enough to cause a meltdown. The lukewarm relationship between him and lead actress Samantha Middleton (Isabella Inchbald) comes tantalizingly close to something more, leaving you thinking that it strangely needs a sequel! Rhodri and Inchbald offer a well played tender moment.
The fast pace of the finale is well timed and hilarious, with broken sets, missing props and fractious relationships coming to boiling point. Andy Jenkins (Theo Woolford) is a pent-up frustrated character on the brink of losing it most of the way through the production. Accused by Samantha (Inchbald) of taking advantage when she was drunk, he feels wronged and hopes to leave the company. In fact it seems everyone except the producer is planning to leave for better things!
The dark side of this play reflects the reality of many small touring theatre companies, doing their best to entertain and suffering the strife of being constantly on the road with not always the best equipment and stars that want to move on to better things. It offers bittersweet comedy. However, they are the breeding ground of some of the greatest actors of our time and not to be undervalued.