UK Theatre Network

HAUNTED at Richmond Theatre

Starring Brenda Blethyn (Mrs Berry), Niall Buggy (Mr Berry) & Beth Cooke (Hazel).

Published by: Tremayne

“The appetite for life”, uttered by Niall Buggy who plays Mr Berry.

Beth Cooke (Hazel), I found, spoke very mechanically.  I understood her character was meant to give lessons in elocution but the way in which she chose to express it worked more as a deterrent.  However, we, as an audience, could not help but remark on the twinkle in her eyes, which helped to draw us in a lot more.

 “You are wasted on young children”, say Mr Berry, who introduces himself to Hazel as Quincy.  He recognises in her, actress-like qualities, as she manages to deliver large chunks of speech to him, taken from various different sources.

The first reference to flowers is made, more specifically, to roses.

Mr Berry: “The scent of the damask…”, as we learn the reason for rose petals being turned red is after Mary Magdalene’s tears fell onto them.

Hazel walks across the stage and over to the door to leave, as he says to her: “Same time next week?  Shall we brave the bard?”, the same time he hands her a cardigan   as a gift.

At this moment Brenda Blethyn (Mrs Berry) comes on the stage and I immediately breathe a huge sigh of relief, as by her mere presence I am reassured.  The case with a lot of the other members of the audience too,I am sure, due to the individual performances up to this point having been nothing more than static.

Mrs Berry remarks: “There was a suspicious box at the door” and Mr Berry replies saying: “There wasn’t a box at the door”.  She can accept this but is adamant that he is having an affair, “that’s what life is (to you), a drink, a cuddle…”

The next thing we are led to believe is that he is perhaps suffering from senile dementia, as Mrs Berry utters the words “…I can’t have you ill… …our child (a stillborn, we suppose)… …did something to us… …we aged”.  “Live and grow old with me”, she says not wanting him to give up on life.

In the next scene Quincy, or Mr Berry, is being given an elocution lesson from Hazel.

“Have you ever been in love?”, he asks her.  She gives herself the liberty of opening up to him and says: “…across the water (describing where the one she loves lives).  He knew what he wanted. …conviction in his eyes.  He was a man with no spare time.  People said he wasn’t emotional. …he just had to hide it under lock and key.”  When she is asked if she had seen him again, it turns out that she only saw him once more, in a lift, where he chose to turn his back on her.

Quincy delights and dazzles her by dangling a black evening gown in front of her very eyes, and speaks of the many suitors that she will have to fend off with a stick, saying: “All things come to she who waits”.

The backdrop changes to a different variety of roses.  Mrs Berry responds to the knock heard at the door, despite her husband’s attempts of dissuasion. “Is it a debt collector you’re hiding from?”, she asks.  She opens the door once more , only to hear the sound of children’s laughter. “It’s all we have”, she says as she reaches out, a spotlight placed upon her and with haunting music playing in the background.  The backdrop depicts a closing red rose, and then there is a black out.

We can make out a touch of the manic depressive in Mr Berry, as his wife encourages them not to break with tradition and to continue having their daily tipple.  The clock strikes twice as it would every time they  toast their good health.  Has one of their lives already been brought to a close or is it about to?

He remains subdued as he arranges his seed sachets in the box they are kept in, something which made me think of my own grandfather, who was an avid gardener.

She enquires: “When are you going to be yourself again?”  With a look of uncertainty about him, she begins to read out loud the instructions from the back of one of the seed sachets.  After retiring to the bedroom, she rushes back in, a sudden panic encompasses her, realising items of her clothing have gone missing.  Is Hazel a figment of Mr Berry’s imagination or the twenty eight year- old daughter he and his wife never had but who he has appeared to have passed his wife’s garments on to?

“It was twenty eight years ago” says Mrs Berry, “and I sat on the bus seat stuck to it”, From this we can only assume that this was when she experienced a miscarriage, as faint whistles and children’s voices can be heard.

One audience member’s response to this production was that he/she felt cheated by the end of it, hoping that any doubts she held in Act I would be somewhat resolved in Act II. They compared it to going up to the counter in McDonald’s, ordering a super size me portion (which until very recently used to be available in The States) and only coming back out with a Happy Meal, and I couldn’t help but agree with this astute remark.