Drowning on Dry Land

Synopsis

Charlie is that modern media phenomenon, an A list celebrity. Mobbed and adored by thousands, his face is everywhere, his name on everything from breakfast cereals to sports gear. He is truly the man who has it all. A beautiful wife, wonderful children, immense wealth and a magnificent home. Everyone is agreed that Charlie Conrad is undoubtedly the man to know and be associated with. What is far more difficult to pin down is what precisely it is that has made Charlie so famous. What has Charlie ever done? Indeed, has he ever done anything? And, in the distorting, mirrored world of celebrity hype, does anyone even care? In our modern, media-driven society is anything what it seems any more?

Our Review:

28 February 2011

Playing the later works by comic maestro Alan Ayckbourn is famously difficult, and it seems that as time goes by his plays become darker and darker, to the point where you have to ask: is this actually a comedy?

"It is folly to drown on dry land" says the old proverb and the show’s scenic metaphor is a Victorian folly, a tower that when you ascend its steps to reach the top, you actually end up where you started, as if it contained the manifestation of an Escher staircase, a representation of the snakes and ladders nature of celebrity. This is the central theme of the piece; we meet a talentless failure who has been catapulted to Hello magazine notoriety, his embittered wife who has sacrificed her career at the alter of motherhood and his world-weary agent (played very convincingly and with delicious irony by Les Dennis).

Enter a TV chatshow host who plans to exploit him to kick her falling star back into orbit, then in comes Mr Chortles, a clown and a sta...

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