The Doubtful Guest
April 8, 2008
The Doubtful Guest
Venue: Northern Stage
Date Reviewed: 8th April, 2008
The Doubtful Guest was my first introduction to both the works of Edward Gorey and Hoipolloi who presented the play in association with the Theatre Royal Plymouth, English Touring Theatre and Watford Palace Theatre.
Due to the generosity of Northern Stage, when they are presenting family shows I am able to be accompanied by my daughters, one aged six and a half and the other eight years old. Therefore I am able to give a review based on the views of two children and that of their parents and how very different they are.
The concept of the play is simple; a group of five mis-fit family members (grandson, mum, dad and grandparents) live in a mansion and spend their days doing very little. That all changes when one day an unexpected guest (who resembles a large brown penguin) arrives and refuses to leave. Their unwanted guest blocks rooms, makes a mess, throws out their belongings and generally makes a nuisance of himself over many years. Why they just did not lock him out when he went to the lake was beyond me.
Told by a cast of five, the production takes time to get going with the cast of Stefanie Muller (who is also the designer), Andrew Pembrooke, Ben Frimstone, Jill Norman and Trond-Erik Vassdal spending time explaining, with the use of a blackboard, where the audience are in relation to the stage. After this we are presented with a collection of short scenes showing how their lives changed when the guest arrived.
Designer Stefanie Muller sets the action on a bare set that is surrounded by pulleys, so scenery can be lowered in to place, with the words projected on a screen above. This gives Director Shon Dale-Jones the opportunity to let the cast appear to improvise, but the concept works so much better in other plays, such as The 39 Steps (currently touring).
While there was certainly a lot of laughter from the audience, interestingly it was not from the children or the audience as a whole. It was from single members of the audience who seemed to laugh in groups of twos or threes from different areas of the auditorium at the same time. It is disconcerting when the man behind laughs along with someone five rows in front while the rest of the audience stays quiet and you cannot understand what they are laughing at. Unfortunately The Doubtful Guest was like that throughout and never appeared to please the whole throughout its running time.
However the view is very different from the point a view of a child, as both my daughters sat motionless for the eighty minute running time and thoroughly enjoyed the show. Asked what part they thought was the best, they both agreed it was when you finally see the Doubtful Guest.
With a running time of 80 minutes, without an interval, young attention spans can be maintained and both of my daughters have assured me they would welcome the opportunity to see the show again.
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