THIS SHOW HAS CLOSED

The Dicehouse
by
Paul Lucas

DRAMATIS PERSONAE DRABBLE ... RICHARD SAWTELL MATTHEW ... ADAM HITCHIN LISA ... JOANNE TOWNER SMITH ... TERRY COLE RATNER ... VINCE WEBB POLLY ... MARION WALKER ASSASSIN ... PAUL MACKLIN VICTOR ... GRAHAM EYRE Directors ... Mike and Sue Nower

REVIEW FARCE SEES STRONG PEFORMANCES God does not play dice, said Einstein. And Seventies cult classic The Dice Man pits random therapy against Jung and co. - And this play is a farcical take on it. Joe Orton had been bludgeoned to death before the book came out, but Paul Lucas's tour de force was very much the play he would have written. Cross dressing, awkward corpses, nutty psychiatrists and stupid policemen are all present and politically incorrect. It's Madness on the soundtrack and bedlam on the stage. Mike and Sara Nower clearly relished the challenge of this amazing piece, and their production had pace, style and some marvellous acting. Adam Hitchin was the former stable boy, meek and fretful, who's the innocent caught up in the mayhem. A beautifully-judged performance from him and the other victim, the gentle paranoiac Smith, in a very funny reading by Terry Cole. The insanely jealous Drabble was Richard Sawtell - plenty of presence, but we might have liked a little more throwaway delivery to lend light and shade. His nemesis, Ratner, was the inimitable Vince Webb, not without some insights into the human condition. Polly, Drabble's wife and Ratner's Trilby, was Marion Walker, resplendent in red underwear and totally in control of her role. The slow assassin with the rusty shears was Paul Macklin, Lisa the girlfriend was Joanne Towner, and the copper with Tourette's - how Orton would have loved that - was the excellent Graham Eyre. On the first night, though there was some groping for words, and the play itself seemed wordy at the end, and devoid of even crazy logic. Where did the options for dice come from? Why leather and not a gymslip? Why ring for a plasterer rather than a paramedic? - (Reviewer; Michael Gray)