Twinkle, Little Star
March 3, 2008
Twinkle, Little Star
Venue: Customs House , South Shields
Date Reviewed: 3rd March
Twinkle, Little Star is a 90 minute play that should be known as Twinkle, Twinkle great big star. Kenneth Alan Taylor (one of the UKs leading Panto Dames) plays Harold Thropp, an aged actor who (like Taylor) is one of the few remaining actors who know exactly how to play a Pantomime Dame.
We meet Thropp, who used to top the bill, as he arrives at his dingy basement dressing room and starts to prepare for the photo call at the switching-on of the towns Christmas lights. He has a great big chip on his shoulder and is very upset with the backstage crew and fellow cast members including his Australian co-star who has made his name in a TV soap.
As the play progresses we get to know about his mother, his first sexual experiences and the true love of his life. All this is told to a mixture of comedy and tragedy. Finally as Thropp changes in to his full Widow Twankey, Dame costume we realise what a sad lonely figure he is and more importantly why. It is then that we realise the significance of why he was wearing a boiler suit under his coat when he made his entrance.
This is writer Phil Meeks (Emmerdale script writer and 2004 Cannes Film Festival winner) first play and I look forward to seeing more of his work. He first gained the idea for Twinkle when passing the Theatre Royal, Newcastle several years ago, where John Inman (seen at that time as one of the top “Dames” in the country) was playing Dame in Aladdin, opposite one of the Big Brother contestants. He had seen Inman many years before as Dame and thought it must be awful for an actor to be taking the role of Dame so seriously year after year, to find they are appearing opposite someone who’s only talent is playing themselves.
Designer Mark Walters gives the dressing room set a cartoon feel, (although it does have running water and electricity) with its own set of footlights. Behind this is a backcloth with a picture of a theatre on, which in a nice little touch more than resembles own Theatre Royal in Newcastle, where the idea for the play was born.
Taylor makes every word of Meeks script count and it not often that theatre of any type is as riveting and moving as this, let alone a one man play.
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