NOT QUITE A SOAP, NOT QUITE AN OPERA –SOMETHING IN BETWEEN THEN!
PLAYREADING OF “SEPTEMBER TIDE”
Chapel Playouse (with bar) 308 Grays Inn Road WC1X 8 DP – see end of article for future events there and elsewhere in London!
The Chapel Playhouse, near Kings Cross is a nice modern cosy clean venue for the kind of event I attended as reviewed below. It has its own bar and comfy seating.
Writer of this play set in 1948 in a Cornwall Village was Daphne du Maurier. Celebrated for “Rebecca”. “Jamaica Inn” and the short stories “The Blue Lenses” as well as a myriad of other works, with more than eight books published including “The Birds and Other Stories”, du Maurier was never a lightweight.
So what does “September Tide” bring new to the table? Well, the characters are stylish, entrancing and middle class achievers but also a tad dysfunctional and wild. The love triangle is addressed. A new son in law (Evan Davies played by Daniel Vernan) falls for or rather seduces his new mother in law (Stella Martyn played by experienced actress Penelope Dudley) whilst his new wife Cherry Davies (Isabella Inchbald) is quietly enjoying an overnight stay with her friend across the local waters after cinema and drinks – the sleepover due to bad weather. Evan is a charismatic artist who sells his work and enjoys his whisky. His wife Cherry has previously claimed to mum Stella that she and her new husband had spent a weekend in Cumbria discussing Van Gogh and has strongly implied that their horizontality as a couple is virtually not happening at all making Stella bemoan whatever happened to romance when pre 1914 it was all couples apparently thought of !
There is a suitor to the lonely widow Stella – Robert Hanson (Gareth Pilkington) and finally Stella is almost giving in to his perpetual claims to her as his wife- to- be, partly to escape Evan’s advances to her. What we see with these characters is that they are all likeable, vulnerable and in different ways, victims of their flawed existences. Rolled onto the scene is Jimmy Martyn (Freddie Bartlett) who is also hanging on to his mother’s apron strings and wanting TLC and company. An in between character is Mrs Tucket (Margo Richardson) who makes tea and cleans, and poses ? naked for Evan.
Evan is cast as a character who is a little cold, a little calculating and more of a flirt than a man with a really deep sense of feeling for people, especially the ladies in his life. Bouyed by his success in the art world, his middle class bourgeois status means he plays with the hearts and fallibility of both Stella and Mrs Tucket and commits them to his canvasses in a devil may care manner. Cherry – his new wife, Stella’s daughter, seems to be someone he teases and has no really strong bond with.
The subject of art, its great effect, and its impact on the emotions and the passion it creates, is used as a tool in this drama to communicate the subconscious and conscious reactions a painting or a sculpture can have on its owners, viewers and recipients. Both Mrs Tucket and Stella become subjects of Evans work as the drama pans out and New York is beckoning as Evan is a saleable creator who can conquer new ground. Stella’s feeling of morality and its opposite number – immorality, means that she wants Evan and Cherry to either leave or she will leave – such is the strength of her undaunted belief in right and wrong.
It takes good acting skills of all participants or players to work together to make this drama convincing, engrossing and plausible. Directed by Georgian Dimitri Devdariani (pictured) with the star player being Stella – (Penelope Dudley – pictured) with sound by Samantha Parry, the production is through North London Actors – a longstanding group. Future productions include Sat 5th Oct the same venue (Chapel Playhouse Kings Cross – 5 mins walk from tube) and 15th October the same venue also – arrive 7 for 7.30 show. You will find a bar open throughout above the basement theatre venue – very compact and intimate. To find out more, contact Gareth Pilkington gareth@northlondonactors.co.uk or phone 0208 275 1736 also check the website www.northlondonactors.co.uk. Also ask about AWL Hammersmith – Actors and Writers League. Membership is 10 pounds annually (free for those 25 or under). Come along and find out what you’re missing – you don’t need the big bucks to see good drama – and you’ll be able to afford a drink too! – Tickets for all under 10 pounds. Cheers. ENJOY
Penny Nair Price.