Reviews

Arrivals and Departures (Scarborough)

In his 54th year as a playwright Alan Ayckbourn has not lost the ability to surprise. Arrivals and Departures is at least two plays in one and, if the joins are structurally uncomplicated, the initial concept is mischievously audacious.

Arrivals and Departures
Arrivals and Departures
© Tony Bartholomew

An army major, in charge of a crack unit, is poised at a London rail terminus to arrest a dangerous terrorist. With him are a Harrogate parking warden who is a key identification witness and a troubled young female soldier in charge of taking care of the civilian. Their stories are told in flashback alongside the progress of the military operation and their conversation as strangers.

What is especially audacious is the deliberate jarring of tone. The military sections of the play are satirical-farcical-nonsensical, with Terence Booth finding every scrap of dignity available to the imperiously incompetent major and eight cast members (who all play at least three characters in the evening) having great fun as bolshie inadequates. Alongside this Ez, the silently bitter young soldier, clearly has an agonising life to reveal, while Barry of Harrogate is a jolly, impossibly loquacious force for both happiness and exasperation. Of course his is the story that will finally move the audience the most.

Elizabeth Boag brings intensity and a growing humanity to Ez and Kim Wall is outstanding as Barry. Very funny as a parody Yorkshireman, with immaculate comic timing, he develops into the representative of the play’s positive message: looking for the best in people may be unfashionable, but ultimately it’s the least worst way of getting along.

The eight actors in the excellent supporting ensemble all have the ability to switch from caricature to realism and back again, and the same can be said for Jan Bee Brown‘s costumes: the dressing-up gear for the military unit (all assuming stock roles to merge into the station crowds) is nicely over the top! Alan Ayckbourn’s direction is, as ever, sharply unobtrusive.

– Ron Simpson

Arrivals and Departures continues at Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough until 5 October 2013