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Performed and produced by the LOVE&MADNESS Ensemble
Only When I Laugh

or A Class Act

A new comedy by Jack Shepherd

Directed by Nicky Henson

Greenwich Theatre

27 – 31 January 2009

Couzens

A review by Amber Gregory for EXTRA! EXTRA!

In the post war days of the fifties when there was little or nothing on the television the working class population would sometimes go to the theatre and watch a variety show.  A variety show would be such a rare thing for people to enjoy that the acts would be able to tour the same show for a good few years.  You would therefore think it would be easy to put together a night of entertainment for a Leeds audience.  Not for Stanley Hinchcliffe- variety show manager, played by Jack Shepherd, (also the playwright), who is trying to do that very thing on this special night; he is a man desperate to get the evening show together.  Having billed two famous acts at the same time with a band that hasn’t shown up things seem pretty doomed.  In this comedy Jack Shepherd has clearly worked very hard on a script that is close to his heart and this form of entertainment is something that he obviously relates to his past.  Very fittingly he plays the creator of the show, just as he is creator of the play.

On this night of entertainment we meet Sam Bolton the secondary comedian of the evening, who is having an affair with the chirpy tap dancer as he is followed by his formidable wife, Hilda.  Then there are the Foley’s: Tom Foley runs circles around his manic wife Eleanor.  Moving away from the couples we meet the two main stars of the show: Reg and Rita.  Hinchcliffe has been warned not to let Reg get up to his usual antics on stage from the disapproving council of Leeds but this looks as though it will be hard to obey as we watch Reg down an entire bottle of whisky and his behaviour goes from bad to worse.  A complete contrast to his mess is elegant Rita Atkinson.  She has travelled all the way from London to perform on this occasion expecting the same glamour and grand surroundings as in the big city, only to be disappointed by missing out on the first changing room as it has been given to Reg.

Most of the action of the play takes place in the first changing room with the great Reg Henson.  The set depicts a crumbling post war interior with drab colours lamely lightened by pink window curtains.  A decrepit sofa takes centre stage.  The set itself seems to develops in tandem with Reg Henson’s trip down the whisky bottle.  The costumes are all very unique. There seems to be no theme or colour scheme- yet this is to perhaps enhance the haphazard nature of the variety show.  The sound design sticks closely to its time zone of the fifties, with crackling tunes whining out from the radio.  What Jack Shepherd has created is a perfect example of a night backstage at a variety show.  Saying that, maybe there’s a reason why an audience comes to watch what’s happening on the front of the stage.  The humour is very one dimensional and much aimed at the baby boomers generation.  With his energetic performance Reg Henson, played by Jim Bywater, has made this play a one man show, and the other characters merely seem like props around him.  So if you’re looking for a trip down memory lane in the days before good TV- this may be the right performance for you.

January 2009
Tue 27, Wed 28 (2.30 & 7.30), Thur 29, Fri 30, Sat 31 (2.30 & 7.30),

London, Greenwich Theatre Crooms Hill, London SE10 8ES

Box Off: 020 8858 7755
Performance Length: 2 hours and 20 minutes

info@greenwichtheatre.org.uk

www.greenwichtheatre.co.u

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