Review: Only When I Laugh
February 4, 2009
Date reviewed: 3 February 2009
Venue: Harrogate Theatre
After an initial week at Greenwich the Love & Madness Ensemble is touring Jack Shepherd’s new play, Only When I Laugh or A Class Act, through Scotland and the North, with its first stop at Harrogate. Sadly there is no sign of the play living up to its sub-title.
Only When I Laugh is set in Leeds Empire in the last days of variety. Plenty of things happen, but no real plot develops. Theatre manager Stanley Hinchcliffe is plagued by a series of problems: the band’s held up in traffic, the Watch Committee has its eye on comedian Reg Henson’s blue material and most of the artists seem on the brink of collapse, extra-marital relationships or quitting the business. Worst of all, the head office in London has replaced the second on the bill with a best-selling girl pop singer who looks set to usurp Reg’s position in the Number 1 dressing room and the second half finale.
The trouble is that none of these develops. In particular, singer Janey Shore proves so amenable that, without any argument, she settles for the Number 2 dressing room and the first half finale. Instead there are artificial panics (marked by constant rings on the telephone or frantic calls for the acts on-stage) and the only real drama is whether Reg Henson will get on stage after his drunken trashing of his dressing room. Monologues express characters’ problems, sometime sliding out of role, as when a Mary Whitehouse parody produces an eloquent sociological speech on variety’s damaging effect on the working classes.
Only When I Laugh aims to transport the audience back 50 years and, in my case, it did, but not in the way intended. As a teenager I used to attend first-house Saturday at a weekly rep that had to cut all plays to 2 ¼ hours to fit with twice-nightly and limit them to 8 characters (or introduce doubling or press gang the stage carpenter). Many of the plays were amiable, but aimless, North Country comedies with titles like Ask Yer Dad! Only the eruptions of obscenity and violence from Reg Henson and a moment of nudity from the same source locate Only When I Laugh in 2009, not 1959.
There are some laughs to be found, of course, and some decent performances, though director Nicky Henson tends to let things drift and does little to individualise the stereotypical characters: the actors doubling parts tend to overemphasise the main features of each. Jim Bywater (Reg) manages a fine proletarian passion at times and exhibits a nice sense of mischief, but is nowhere near the life force of Frank Randle who, I imagine, was the original (and whose name, shamefully, is misspelt in the programme). Neil Sheppeck is convincingly understated as second comedian Sam Bolton, whose off-stage character, though not his act, seems to be based on George Formby, and his relationship with Rita (Stephanie Thomas) has a touching humanity.
As Stanley, Jack Shepherd himself disappoints. Always in my experience a compelling actor, this time he seems to lack focus. We can believe his mix of indecision, fear and rumpled dignity, but projection is oddly muted and sometimes lines lack clarity.
-Ron Simpson
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