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Shot Actress – Full Story!
A review by Mary Couzens for EXTRA! EXTRA!
H. E. Bates was described by Grahame Greene as 'Britain's successor to Chekhov' and it’s easy to understand why. His writing is succinct, yet fluid in that the minute details of his characters are not merely noted, but described with a vibrant sense of inner realism. Refreshingly, the writing never lapses into the ‘blow by blow’ descriptions often found in today’s ‘fast track’ fiction. Rather, it moves along at a pace that is just languid enough to allow one’s imagination to fill in its skilfully realised gaps, always, exuding a strong sense of time and place as it does so. The two ‘acts’ of this duo, The Great Opportunity (1969) and Shot Actress – Full Story! (1939) are both enacted with such credibility and conviction that in each case, Graham Padden really seems to be the character he is playing, which is saying something, as the two men he plays couldn’t be more different. Padden becomes Bates himself in The Great Opportunity as he relates the author’s bittersweet remembrances about his teenage first love. There are moments of personal glory and revelation in his tale and its telling of it, as well as of confused anguish and pained acceptance. This ‘reading’ also finds Bates’ experiencing his first job, as a junior reporter for a local newspaper, where his glamorous dreams of becoming a journalist clash with reality when his role consists primarily of attending country fetes and continually checking the coroner’s office in search of unsavoury leads for titillating newspaper copy. Graham Padden offers a warmly droll performance as prolific author and storyteller Bates. After initially thanking everyone for ‘coming to hear him speak’, he alternates between reading from a podium, and moving to different parts of the space, utilising it fully, in order to relate to his audience, adding interest and naturalism to his performance. Vintage looking copies of The Vintage World, part one of his three part autobiography are piled on a table nearby, seemingly, to accommodate a book-signing after his talk. For one who only formerly knew of Bates from his Darling Buds of May (1958) fame, Padden’s delightful performance was as instructive as it was enjoyable. I can pay both author and actor further due by adding that I am now anticipating looking forward to delving into Bates’ literary canon in future. Once again, Padden is thoroughly convincing as the fastidious watchmaker, as he shuffles through the rituals of tea-making and ‘repairs’ a watch, holding its miniscule parts in a pair of tweezers to examine them through a magnifying glass as he speaks. Initially, confusion is inspired by his almost mumbled repeating of the phrase, ‘She never even spoke to me,’ before an increasing sense of tension is generated by his subsequent revelations. The story serves as a rather chilling reminder that everything we do, inadvertently affects the lives of others, for better or, for worse. Fine period details, represented by wooden furnishings, lamps and other accoutrements faithful to the eras of the two stories, as provided by Graham and Teresa Padden, enhance the atmospheres of both enactments. And the use of appropriate music in both cases, either classical or vintage 30’s jazz as the scenes warrant also heightens the sense of passing time. It’s highly ironic that these two pieces of theatre, both of which reflect on the foibles of journalism and the ‘press’ are being staged in the cosy little Bridewell Theatre, just off of Fleet Street. This absorbing production also presents itself as something of a rare opportunity, as it features two definitive examples of master storytelling, performed by a consummate actor who is as dedicated to the masterful telling of them as his audience is to relishing their every word.
ST BRIDE FOUNDATION
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