Review: One Act Play, Lace Market Theatre

One Act Play is, in fact, a one-act play; forty-five minutes with no interval. Swindon playwright Matt Fox won a New Writing award for it last year, and on the evidence of this super interpretation it’s easy to see why.

Even before the action starts a middle-aged couple are in bed together. He looks like Mr Dull: string vest, striped pyjamas, reading the Yorkshire Post. She’s in an unsexy nightie, filing her nails. They look as if they’ve been part of each other’s lives for ever. Could be a mundane evening.

But it isn’t. The play turns out to be a surrealistic feast – with a difference. One of the many things it takes a poke at is surreal theatre itself. It turns over, and makes one question, the very concept of theatre and its associated conventions. Be warned – anyone who’s part of, or on the fringes of, a stagey in-crowd might feel his/her pretentions being pricked.

And it’s funny. The characters are dismissive of the audience for sure. But they give their creator – they have no idea who he is; they don’t know who they themselves are – a positive caning: for them he’s an “arrogant twat”. In the process they raise a lot of laughs.

Questions are raised. Not just about theatre, but about life itself: who are we and why are we here? None of them are answered. It’s experimental theatre which is, at the same time, a critique of experimental theatre.

As the nameless couple, Lorna McCullough and Ian Bennett deliver admirably controlled, subtle and intelligent performances. And they work on a simple but effective set dominated by a painting of a whippet to reinforce the Yorkshire theme running through the play.

This upstairs studio production, directed by Amber Forrest, is a fine start to the Lace Market year.

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ONE ACT PLAY Nottingham's Lace Market Theatre
Written by Matt Fox

Yet again set in the intimate upstairs theatre space of the Lace Market Theatre this was the ideal setting for "One Act Play".

With more dissections of the human character and what we thought we knew about ourselves and life than can be found in a hospital theatre than in t' standard theatre. One man and one woman are sitting in bed chatting away but we find out that all is not quite as it seems and has one big, very unexpected twist at the end, one that I definitely didn't see coming!!

The play breaks down all theatrical rules and de constructs the whole idea of theatre that we've come to love, but with such warmth and hilarity and just a little humanity and pathos. We discover that "One Act Play" creates the writer as a God, a creator of everything that they currently know. He's in charge of their every word and action, but then our characters start to gently rebel, lambast and insult their very creator. This again turns the tables on the whole acting bible with refreshing honesty as from t' viewpoint of t' standard man in t' street. Thar's also some rather wonderful over t' top Yorkshire accenting goin' off thar as well! By gum!

This is one play where all the comedy is played through the script as there is no physicality to speak of and this really accentuates the wonderful comic lines of Matt's work. But the lines can only really come to life through two wonderful character actors, Lorna McCullough and Ian Bennett, both of which I've seen on several occasions in various plays and have enjoyed their varied acting history.

Lorna is delightful and reminds me of another wonderful actress, Annette Crosbie in this play. And Ian, facially very expressive and can often raise a smile by just raising an eyebrow, as proven even before the play started. Combined with these talents, Lorna and Ian bring the warm and funny script bouncing to surreality (is there such a word?). Some nice comic timing between the pair which made you feel comfortable with them as a pair in their characters.

A short play coming in at about 45 minutes long but packed with some genius wordplay and two very funny performances from our two handers. Lovingly directed by Amber Forrest, if there were any tickets left I'd advise you to snap them up but tonight was sold out, as is tomorrow afternoon and tomorrow evening.

Maybe Matt and co were just testing the water with this play by just running it over two days, who knows. I'd have loved this play to be on longer, or maybe a revisit to the Lace Market, because I think there could have been another couple of days success there. But isn't there that old theatrical adage..."always leave them wanting for more".

Read the original article here.