Grand Slam

Synopsis

Comedy two-hander about a failed British tennis player and the unscrupulous man hired to act as her bodyguard. The tennis player, Madeleine, is in London as a wild card entrant into Wimbledon. Her usual bodyguard has suffered an injury to his hand and Cedric has been hired as the replacement live-in protector. For the first time in her career, Madeleine manages to win the early stages of the tournament and suddenly finds herself in the unbelievable territory of the Wimbledon semi-finals. Madeleine’s and Cedric’s relationship develops with unexpected results.

Our Review:

30 June 2008

Anyone for tennis? Yes please, but not in the theatre. Grand Slam, Lloyd Evans’ misfired, implausible two-hander is scarcely better than Terrence McNally’s knock-kneed Deuce on Broadway last year, in which an old doubles partnership played by Angela Lansbury and Marian Seldes chewed the fat at the US Open; but at least the American play exuded a love and knowledge of the game.

Evans seems to think that the knock-out stages at Wimbledon are played on successive days; that a leading player, the British Number One (albeit the World Number 156), would be holed up in a Wimbledon rented house with no friends, no trainer, no family, just a night-club bouncer who’s standing in for her injured bodyguard; and that she would dissipate a lifetime’s dedication within touching distance of a first Grand Slam victory.

The lissom, lovely Rachel Pickup plays Madeleine Rochester, the 29-year-old blonde British loser who has been issued with a wild card chance. ...

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