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| Cast | |
| Neville | Tony Donnelly |
| Gordon | Alan Goodwin |
| Angus | Keith King |
| Roy | Chris Manning-Perry |
| Crew | |
| Stage Manager | Janet Hampton |
| Assistant Stage Manager | Pauline Clifton |
| Set Design | Nicole Antras |
| Set Construction | Ross Holland, Paul Lay, Clarke Findlay |
| Set Painting | Nicole Antras, Claire Kingshott, Paula Gibbs, Janet Findlay, Jean Sharp |
| Properties | Jean Sharp |
| Lighting Design | Bernard Tilley, Tim Hewitt |
| Lighting Operation | Chris La Roche |
| Sound Design | Bernard Tilley, Carol La Roche |
| Sound Operation | Carol La Roche |
| Special Effects | Bernard Tilley, John Buckle, Grant Griffiths, Alex Cooper |
With thanks to the Eynsford Scouts, Bexley Council Youth Centre and Giles Wolfe for the loan of the camping equipment.
Review
Desert island risk pays off for Claire
Rarely do you hear such spontaneous laughter come so quickly as it does in the Edward Alderton Theatre's brilliant production of Neville's Island. Tim Firth's comedy is a bold choice for the company, but it has taken the challenge and succeeded, not only in tapping into the rich comic vein but also in capturing the play's gradual shift to a much darker mood.
The setting is a fog-bound island in the Lake District where a group of four middle managers find themselves washed up after their participation in a team-building outward bound exercise goes wrong. Ill-equipped to cope with their predicament and ill-matched in terms of personality, their tempers fray and soon the misery of their situation begins to pale before the rows, recriminations and raiding of skeletons in cupboards. The duties of team leader fall on the easy-going shoulders of Neville, desperately trying to salvage the purpose of the trip as the situation grows ever more desperate. His rallying calls are regularly drowned out by the sneering sarcasm of loudmouth Gordon, ready with a perpetual stream of putdowns and insults that eventually provoke his colleagues to violence.
Completing the quartet are the pernickety Angus, and Roy, a meek, born-again Christian whose absence from work through a nervous breakdown is a taboo topic of conversation. When his personal problems are exposed, he responds by turning native, heading for the trees in his underpants, armed with a machete and a noose.
Director Claire Kingshott has clearly grasped the essence of this play and ensured that it makes its mood shifts seamlessly. She is helped by a fine quartet of actors, led by Tony Donnelly and Alan Goodwin in an excellent double act as the well-meaning but ineffectual Neville and the carping Gordon. Alan Goodwin demonstrates masterful comic timing and use of expression: just a glance of his rolling eyes is sometimes enough to nail a laugh. Keith King simmers nicely as Angus, stewing inside until Gordon's suggestions about his wife's infidelity make him boil over and reveal hidden dimensions to his character. Chris Manning-Perry completes the cast as the gentle and slightly gormless Roy, clearly not quite all there since his breakdown and coming through his ghastly experience truly bloodied but unbowed. His is a performance of wonderful restraint and consistency.
Nicole Antras' set of a foggy wooded
island is wonderfully authentic, right down to the smell of the fallen
leaves. There is also a battery of impressive special effects, none of
which can prepare the audience for the final coup right above their
heads.
Darryl McCarthy
Kentish Times | 30 January 1997
