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| Cast |
| Dr Arthur Wicksteed | Steve Marshall |
| Muriel Wicksteed | Desni Hanford |
| Dennis Wicksteed | Ben Cowen |
| Connie Wicksteed | Wendy Marsh |
| Mrs Swabb | Michael Martin |
| Canon Throbbing | Paul Friett |
| Lady Rumpers | Gill Grubb |
| Felicity Rumpers | Aysev Ismail |
| Mr Shanks | Richard Banks |
| Sir Percy Shorter | Clive Madel |
| Mr Purdue | Mark Campbell |
| Crew | |
| Stage Manager | Rebecca Mason |
| Assistant Stage Manager | Yvonne Golding |
| Set Design | Maureen Hardwen |
| Set Construction | John Vinnels, Ron Andrews, Peter Smith |
| Set Painting | Richard Banks, Joseph Banks, Ron Hardwen, John Vinnels |
| Backdrop Design & Painting | Annette Tranter |
| Lighting Design | Jerry McKeon |
| Lighting Rig | Jerry McKeon, Christine McKeon |
| Lighting Operation | Matthew Arnold |
| Sound Design & Preparation | Rebecca Mason |
| Sound Operation | David Shields |
| Costumes | Viv Stapleton, Maureen Hardwen |
| Properties | Ron Hardwen |
| Backstage | Ron Hardwen |
Preview
Show worth lusting after
A fast-moving comedy of mistaken identities and sexual encounters is on its way to Bexleyheath. Habeas Corpus is one of Alan Bennett's most popular plays and will be performed at the Edward Alderton Theatre, Brampton Road, from Saturday. The play is set in Brighton in the 1960s where the lust and longing of the permissive society has well and truly taken hold of a family.
Bexley Extra | 9 March 2007
Review
Bennett's ironic farce proves a crowd-puller
The popularity of British farce was evident once again when the Edward Alderton Theatre's recent production of Alan Bennett's Habeas Corpus played to packed houses, writes David Oatley. Written in 1973, Habeas Corpus is one of Bennett's earlier pieces. Categorized as a sex farce, it does however allow us a glimpse of the playwright's skills in irony, satire and black humour that are perhaps more obviously apparent in his later works.
Set in Brighton's silk stocking district of Hove, the play pokes fun at middle class pretensions and hypocrisy through the farcical comings and goings at the house of Arthur Wicksteed, a trusted family practitioner, and his rather dysfunctional family.
The play is written to proceed at a furious pace, but in this production the sense of chaotic urgency was never quite captured. More use could have been made of the open set (faithful to Bennett's vision), both in terms of entrances and exits, but also in allowing the actors to fill the space on stage, thereby fully developing their interactions. Despite this, there were some sterling performances; such as the excellent Wendy Marsh who was totally convincing as Arthur's spinster sister Connie, paranoid about her inability to fill the smallest of bra sizes; and the suitably frustrated Paul Friett as Canon Throbbing, her unwanted suitor of ten years driven on by the results of Connie's cosmetic solution.
Michael Martin's Mrs Swabb, the Wicksteed home help, skilfully narrated the action with the humour and common sense attributed to the character. Steve Marshall and Desni Hanford, as Arthur and his frustrated wife, successfully portrayed a tortured couple, although much of the irony contained within Arthur's monologues was lost due to a lack of light and shade in delivery. There were strong cameo performances from Gill Grubb as the wonderfully haughty Felicity Rumpers, Richard Banks as the hapless Mr Shanks and Mark Campbell as the suicidal Mr Purdue.
There was certainly plenty of laughter from the audience, who no doubt went home with the firm belief that this slice of British farce is alive and well some 34 years after it was conceived.
David Oatley
Kentish Times I 29 March 2007
Miscellaneous
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Press Release (PDF) |
