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Wiseman's House House Play 2008

The Odd Couple by Neil Simon

As I took my place in the packed auditorium of the Redgrave Theatre and started to peruse the interestingly illustrated programme, my eyes were immediately drawn to the last name in the ‘crew’ list; Ronald Cross, the Marshall at Clifton as ‘Anti-Advertising’...at the time I was just plain confused, however, I would later find out that Murray Lidgitt, who was supposedly in charge of advertising, had forgotten to have the posters checked, and therefore Mr Cross ripped them down. To be quite honest, the programme was riddled with internal Wisemans jokes, which to an outsider meant just about nothing! At least Alex Bull, the official spectator, had already taken his seat in the front row; another Wisemans joke...?

Enough about the programme; the music faded, the lights dimmed and the curtain rose to reveal the rather out of the ordinary set design – an extremely untidy room, which was a very unique way of opening the show. The entire performance was set in the lead character’s living room, a good choice of location, nevertheless only time would tell to see if the actors used the set to enhance their performance.

After last year’s performance from Axel and Swans, the Wisemans cast really did have to pull out all the stops to maintain the high level of performance that has become expected of them. And let me say that, on the whole, the entire cast tried their upmost and pulled off a fantastic performance.

The first character we were introduced to was Oscar, played by James Goldsworthy who, right from start to finish was wearing little clothing. At first, and for what in real life would have been a few days, he was wearing a tee-shirt and a towel, as if he had just got out of the shower; maybe he could have got dressed at some point? Oscar’s companions were middle-aged gambling addicts who all had the same thing in common; preferring to spend as much time with their friends, and as little as possible with theirs wives.

William Clark who played Vinnie, acted very well.

Murray, who played a character also called Murray, very convincingly showed true emotion at the thought of Felix killing himself after being thrown out by his wife.

Will Pople and James Moore also presented steadfast performance throughout the play. James really got into the swing of things with his very ‘tasteful’ and fitting costume.

Ed Hennah, who played Felix, played an absolutely magnificent part in the play, jokes aside, his performance alongside James Goldsworthy and crew really did make for good watching. Felix is a complete ‘neat freak’ who, when he moves in with Oscar transforms his house from a tip to a gleaming clean environment. Ed’s ‘camp’ acting also added another dimension to the overall humour of the play.

Finally, last but by no means least we were introduced to VLAD, who was played by Ashot Kazaryan. VLAD had been befriended by one of the members of the ‘gambling crew’ and really added a chunk of humour. The others had never really played with their lives at stake until VLAD introduced them to the game of Russian Roulette. However, he soon ended his brief appearance by shooting himself in the head.

The stage management was also cunningly handled, with the odd brief appearance from the ‘stage hand co-ordinator’ Chris Lee during set changes.

Roy, played by James Moore was in my opinion the only character who genuinely had a good costume that portrayed the gambling, boyish feel of the show. It was a shame that both Felix and Chris appeared solely in school uniform throughout the play.

Lighting was kept to a bare minimum, and to be quite frank it could have been more imaginative. The audience would have preferred to see some more effective lighting at times; namely during the short scene where just about everyone was chasing each other. The music was also kept to a minimum, but some clever and effective sound effects were used.

The choice of play was very good and it was interpreted well by the small, but talented cast. On the other hand, one feature of the performance was the sheer number of ‘cheap gags’; The audience had truly mixed opinions as to whether at times they did ‘cross the line’ a little too much. Maybe some of the humour could have been replaced with more moving scenes pondering over the possibility of Felix’s death? This would have highlighted some truly magnificent acting from Murray in that particular scene.

Overall the play was presented to the audience in a very understandable and funny manner by talented actors. Maybe next year Wisemans should consider appointing a costume director to avoid actors appearing in school uniform. Nonetheless, in the scale of things this was only a minor issue, and really this wasn’t a major set back.

To summarize, the plot was simple but effective, and the simplicity served to highlight some tremendous acting. On the whole a very enjoyable and amusing play to watch!

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