Party Piece by Richard Harris. Manor Pavilion Theatre, Sidmouth to 27 July 2024.

4✩✩✩✩ Review: Cormac Richards.

“A bucketful of laughs.”

Playwright Richard Harris has written some of the most performed plays in the UK – ‘Stepping Out’ and ‘Outside Edge’ to name the best known; ‘Party Piece’ is a much lesser known work, but based on his earlier play, ‘Local Affairs’. In ‘Outside Edge’ the central characters are a pedantic, domineering husband and a put-upon, subservient wife – as they are here. As with many comedies, most of the characters are sad people in one way or another: Harris’s plays are often compared with the work of Alan Ayckbourn for this very reason.

 A fancy dress housewarming party hits more than a few problems as neighbours, friends, frozen food and alcohol all play their part in causing utter chaos. Played out in adjacent gardens which are wonderfully designed by Andrew Beckett and comes complete with two garden sheds, multiple doors  and a huge number of appropriate props – this being 1992, once again the attention to detail of James Prendergast is laudable; those definitely appear to be the right period Tesco carrier bags!

 This is by no means an easy play to produce, with its broad comedy, multiple farcical elements, comings and goings, interlocking dialogue between the two gardens and controlled Bedlam; to do so in just five days rehearsal is an enormous achievement, but in the skilled directorial hands of Jason Marc-Williams, the play works really well and the ringing out of laughter from the very outset is testament to that.

 In a performance which, at time, echoes the great John Cleese, Owen Landon, as host Michael,  is right on the money; his attire in Act Two is glorious and his meltdown is comedy gold. As his long-suffering wife, Roma, Bridget Lambert is the main tragic victim of the whole farrago, she spirals downhill from the start; it is utterly effective and sadly funny. Their elderly neighbour, Mrs Hinson,  is brought to life with lip-licking relish by Hilary Harwood who dotes on her son and despises his new wife with side swipes left and right; Brendan Matthew, as David, captures the ‘barrow boy’, cheeky chappie perfectly, with a great line in ridiculous theories and stories, his comic timing is spot on; as with Roma, Jennifer, David’s wife, suffers at the hands of all and sundry and she too descends into hysteria – Stephanie Lodge aims her retorts to her mother-in-law with the sharpest of tongues in an exquisitely judged performance.

As the party starts in Act Two, only two guests actually arrive at the party. Toby, white suited and be-fezzed – an oddball character in many respects; Mark Laverty is so skilled at physical comedy that he creates laughs where they are far from obvious. The play is almost stolen by a comic masterclass from Julia Main as the vampish man-eater, Sandy – with some of the best lines in the play and a chance to squeeze every ounce of physical and verbal comedy from the character, she leaves the audience in hysterics.

 Jason Marc-Williams, his cast and crew, have achieved a near impossible feat here with this far from straightforward comedy – it will bed down quickly and the laughs will continue to come thick and fast. This is hugely good fun, a bucketful of laughs (some slightly inadvertent on opening night!), and played to the hilt by a talented and comically gifted cast. A complete joy.

 

Cast

Michael Smethurst – Owen Landon

Roma Smethurst – Bridget Lambert

Mrs Hinson – Hilary Harwood

David Hinson – Brendan Matthew

Jennifer Hinson – Stephanie Lodge

Toby Hancock – Mark Laverty

Sandy Lloyd-Meredith

 

Creatives

Writer – Richard Harris

Director – Jason Marc-Williams

Design – Andrew Beckett

Lighting & Sound Operation – James Prendergast

Costume Designer – Jan Huckle

Set Builders – Rhys Cannon & James Prendergast

Props Supervisor - James Prendergast

Artistic Director - Paul Taylor-Mills

Season Associate Producer – Andrew Beckett