Sand Castles
There are times as a reviewer when you have to do your duty. As the rest of the country settled down to watch England’s quarter final match with Portugal in June, I joined the respectable gathering of hardy souls who spurned the opportunity to watch England’s latest football failure and enjoy an ultimately more pleasing spectacle – Sand Castles, Chipperfield Theatre Group’s latest seaside comedy.
As Michael Owen was giving those at home something to cheer about so the cast here won the crowd over early doors with their eclectic mix of characters. Given the timing of the performance it was perhaps unsurprising that the male members of the audience were outnumbered 10:1 by their female counterparts. But at least the eight men I did count were rewarded mid-way through the first half with Anna Watts and Kristin Havanga stripping down to bikinis. A sight undoubtedly more palatable than that of Wayne Rooney limping off with an ankle injury. Maybe we made the right choice, after all.
Written by As Time Goes By and Brush Strokes writer, Bob Larbey (I didn’t let that put me off), the play pitched the owners of beach huts against a trio of adversaries who dared to challenge their dubious claims to the adjoining area of beach. Though the play tailed off slightly once this central conflict had been resolved there were enough good lines and excellent performances to sustain the interest of those in the stands to the final whistle. Displaying some nice subtleties, Anne Pinkus showed much skill in her promotion to a major role and the ever-talented Sarah-Jayne Bottril was on her best form as Bernice. She illustrated the premise of the play delightfully, exposing the futility of the couples’ snobbery with her elevated sense of importance and evident hypocrisy. Quite obviously she and her husband Stan (Rob Hine) had disowned the class from which they came. Reminders of which were provided by the random interventions from Stan’s eccentric Scottish mother (Jane Bryson). And, though her presence was something of an embarrassment to her family, the contributions she made (unlike Beckham and Vassell’s) were invariably spot on.
The resistance was led spiritedly by brassy brummie, Mrs P (Jennifer Heusen) who tackled the injustice by way of a sit-down protest outside the beach huts. Love interest was provided by newcomer, Lisa Heusen whose emerging performance and growing confidence mirrored that of her character, Pauline, who fell for the charms of Doug. Paul Instrall was very assured in his portrayal of the happy go lucky gigolo whose expert handling of the beach dispute made most of the cast see sense.
One or two late slip ups can perhaps be blamed on Portugal’s late equaliser, while the play, seemingly set for a happy ending, had a twist when it was revealed that the likeable and more conciliatory beach hut owner, William (Joe Heusen) had a terminal disease. Sadly, it was not the only event of the evening that did not end happily ever after. A dodgy referee and some lamentable penalty taking saw to that!
Jason Cox