REVIEW: ⭐⭐⭐ - Verbal Diary

Wednesday 4 June - The Mission Theatre

I probably qualify as a John Otway fan - like I know why the love interest is called Cheryl - and his fingerprints are all over this show, from a poster on the wall to a couple of throwaway disparaging lines that would have meant little to the uninitiated: for an Otway fan (and there are many) this show is a must. Whether it translates out of that coterie is a more difficult question.

The writing is in a breezy sitcom style, and the characters ditto. Pretty good, believable, naturalistic, energetically acted. But sadly, as this isn’t actually a sitcom, they have no chance to develop or bed themselves in [fnarr fnarr] over this short duration. We don’t get to learn the catchphrases and the character quirks & comic inevitabilities.

The only one who gets any much fleshing out is the protagonist, again a believable enough character, but unhappily for him he spends the whole show being a bit of a dick really, and being ridiculed by the others, and it takes time to take his side. This role was taken by Otway himself in the original show, and a lot of that work wouldn’t have needed to be done.

Though he’s not unattractive and we are probably rooting for him at the end [no, he doesn’t really get the girl, but that’s not a spoiler, it’s Otway, he was never going to…], one can see how JO [or original Producer Rik Mayall] would have turned everything up to 11 and carried it: as a naturalistic performance he just doesn’t have much to go on.

The songs aren’t so memorable - with the single exception of the final number and emotional tying up of the plot - and we have a parallel problem here: Otway’s own material works for him because of the OTT emotions and activity he piles on top, but without those - which wouldn’t have been natural for the characters - they’re just not substantial enough to carry any weight at all. I can’t quite believe that John himself doesn’t know that…

One absolute highlight is the set, well done and operated, and source of the best gag in the show, the 2-dimensional toilet!

There’s a lot to like about this show, I think it just needs to be pushed a bit further up the scale. Hopefully by the time it comes to your town it will be…

Dr Zeno