Review - Lucky Sods
Date Reviewed: 15th April, 2009
Venue: The Lowry
Lucky Sods, the latest production from the Hull Truck Theatre Company has everything you could want from a play: good acting, a striking stage design, genuinely funny dialogue; and yet somehow it doesn’t quite come together. While well-produced and amusing, the play never quite seems to take off, so you are left with the feeling of spectating rather than being involved in the action or emotion of the performance.
The story concerns Morris and Jean, a couple in their early 50s, who win the lottery and the way it changes their lives. Rather than removing all cares and worries, the windfall simply highlights the problems which already exist in their relationship. The begging letters and clustering relatives don’t help matters, and their marriage slowly splinters. That said, this is still a comedy and the plot of lottery winners on a spree is ripe for all kinds of jokes.
Gordon Kane provides a believable turn as Morris, and Jacqueline Naylor is truly excellent as his wife Jean. However, special mention needs to be made of James Weaver and Fiona Wass who, between them, create the other six characters in the play, with Weaver’s Vicar getting some of the biggest laughs of the night and his characterisation of Norman providing much of the pathos of the piece.
Designer Pip Leckernby’s two sets are cleverly used to represent a number of different locations, but the play is largely static, with the words carrying much of the action while the actors have little interaction with props and scenery. Presumably a decision of director Nick Lane, it is this, at least in part, which dampens the energy in the play. The dialogue is well written and witty but is to stilted, failing to lift the piece to the level that it deserves.
This is by no means a bad play. It provides an entertaining night out at the theatre, but whether from a lack of energy in the audience on the night, or a fundamental lack in the play itself, it never rises to the heights of hilarity for which it seems to strive. It seems stuck between being a comedy of relationships and something more farcical without ever achieving either. A fun way to spend an evening, but not a must-see.
-Calum Kerr