Andrew Cartmel's script twists and twinkles this way and that
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L to R Freya Alderson, Rosie Edwards and Jamie Hutchins
July 14, 2024
Andrew Cartmel’s cracking farce is showing at the Tabard until Saturday 27 July. The fast flowing plot is ludicrous but totally plausible and brilliantly sustained for approximately seventy minutes. No interval.
My, oh my, the four actors mesmerised the audience on Thursday night as they punched out their lines with aplomb. The dynamic pace of the show is like a super-fast tennis match thanks to the stellar comic performance of Jamie Hutchins (Ash). He is on the stage all the time, in his dressing gown. Ash just wants to get dressed. However, he is constantly interrupted by the cast of a play he is directing. Watching Ash parry with others is spellbinding and a hoot. Character after character repeatedly swaggered, strode, sashayed, simpered into his front room with A GRIEVANCE.
YES, a grievance that grew from confusion, from misunderstandings, from overheard and misheard conversations, etc. Ash partially fends them off. The script twists, twirls and twinkles this way and that way causing the audience to chuckle with glee or whole heartedly guffaw.
Jenny Eastop direction is faultless: timing is spot on, every word can be heard and the actors are a perfectly bonded team.
Be warned that every time one works out the direction the plot is going it is volleyed in a different direction. Wonderful vocal errors turned into huge farcical dramas that knotted the plot into a comedy that flies like a kite in the sky.
Both Freya Alderson and Rosie Edwards surprise and delight as does Ryan Woodcock. His anguish is keenly felt, despite the absurdity of his ridiculous, but imagined situation.
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Jamie Hutchins (left) and Ryan Woodcock (right)
“Dressing Gown” will boost your mood during these gloomy, glum, grey days waiting for summer. Let’s hope it returns to Chiswick and that it is a hit wherever else it plays this summer.
Susan Stanley-Carroll
The play is produced by Simon and Sarah Reilly for Take Note.
Performances will be from Wednesday to Friday at 7:30pm and at 6pm on Saturdays and the play lasts an hour and ten minutes with no interval.
Ticket prices:
£18/£15 concessions – performances 12 to 20 July
£20/£17 concessions – performances 24 to 27 July
Book online or call 020 8995 6035. In person bookings can be made at the theatre half an hour before each performance.
Coming up at the Tabard
Theatre at the Tabard is at 2 Bath Road, Chiswick (W4 1LW).
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