UK Theatre Network

Cathy Crabb’s comedy Beautiful House returns to the Library Theatre stage in a full-blown professional production after its success in the 2009 Re:play Festival.

Middle-aged, middle-class Bridgette and Ronnie appear to have come down in the world with a bang when they take up residence in one of Salford’s less salubrious tower blocks.  The mystery of how they find themselves exiled from the rural idyll of Delph and living cheek-by-jowl with neighbours like pink-velour-track-suited Paula and chavvy Otis is eventually revealed over several fraught and occasionally alcohol-fuelled encounters.

The title is a metaphor that works on several levels.  Bridgette’s beautiful house is the rambling wreck she’s spent years renovating; for Otis, it’s the dream of a better life for his family a long way from the inner-city.  But to Paula, who (astonishingly) works on reception at the Manchester Museum and has become obsessed with Egyptology, “Beautiful House” means the special place where bodies go to be eviscerated before they are mummified. 

Cathy Crabb’s script is brilliantly funny, littered with killing one-liners, hilarious anecdotes and sharply detailed observation of life.  Her characters are raw and sometimes painful to watch, especially Ronnie and Bridgette with their shockingly cruel and destructive relationship - Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? has nothing on this.  Janice Connolly, all condescending air and semi-refined accent, convincingly reverts to Bridgette’s native Failsworth idiom at the drop of a hat, and John Henshaw blusters about as her dull but dependable chemistry teacher husband.

Sally Carman is very funny but slightly cartoony as Paula - I miss the blend of the pathetic and the ridiculous which Cathy Crabb herself brought to the part last year.  However James Foster, reprising his role as nice-but-dim Otis, is superb once again.  His wordless reaction to Paula’s holiday story is unforgettable, a really great piece of acting.

Did I mention that it’s funny?  The cast has the audience roaring the whole way through, while Noreen Kershaw’s direction keeps the whole thing on an even keel.  A great evening’s entertainment.

Beautiful House is on until Saturday 8 May 2010

Prices: £8.00-£18.00 (concessions available)

Eves: Mon-Thurs @ 7.30pm; Fri & Sat @ 8pm

Matinees: Thurs & Sat @ 3pm

Box Office: 0161 236 7110

www.librarytheatre.com

Back again after two successful runs last year, the latest JB Shorts show - six brand new ten-minute plays written by top TV writers - returns to the basement of Joshua Brooks on Princess Street.

Work of this calibre, coupled with a comparatively short time commitment, attracts actors that Manchester’s top theatres would envy: JB Shorts 3 includes Chris Hannon (Lunch Monkeys), Vicky Binns (Molly from Corrie), Anthony Crank (Shameless) and Peter Slater (Ideal), while local luminaries Caroline Clegg and Noreen Kershaw are among the directors.

As usual there is an eclectic mix of style and content.  Backlash by James Quinn (currently gracing the stage of the Library Theatre) is a spoof party political broadcast satirising the anti-political correctness brigade; Lindsay Williams’ Quixotry exposes the fraught world of Scrabble tournaments; and Andrew Kirk uses multimedia technology and a bunny-girl outfit to put a relationship under pressure in I’m Mad, Me. 

After the break (featuring some very disturbing invisible theatre) S.H.A.G.G. by Dianne Whitley imagines what might happen if Russell Brand hosted a sex addicts support group in Chorlton-cum-Hardy (very convincing turn from Marvyn Dickinson as the tousle haired host who seems to be mainly addicted to himself), followed by the Trevor Suthers comedy Shakespeare’s Monkeys, a surreal piece which is dominated by Antony Bessick’s astonishing physical performance as a semi-simian zookeeper.

The finale, and my favourite, was Peter Kerry’s Truncheons and Blackberries which had sharp writing from the off, fantastic acting all round, a nice touch of farce and enough meat in the concept for a full-length play.  Peter Slater and John Catterall are a pair of memorably dim PC Plods, Verity Henry is their sexy but foul-mouthed Deputy Chief Constable, and Annamarie Bayley is a top Daily Mail columnist who inadvertently uncovers an explosive secret.

The fast-paced format of JB Shorts makes it a winner with audiences because even if one sketch isn’t to your taste another will be along in ten minutes (a much better service than the Eccles tram, I can tell you).  Here’s looking forward to JB Shorts 4.

www.jbshorts.co.uk

Till Saturday 27 March (not Sunday) @ 7pm

Tickets £5 on door

Joshua Brooks

106 Princess Street
Manchester

Lancashire M1 6NG