Bill Kenwright is chairman of Everton Football Club whose motto “Nil Satis Nisi Optimum” means “Nothing but the best is good enough”. Unfortunately, the same high standard does not apply to his inaugural touring production for The Classic Screen To Stage Theatre Company which under the direction of Jonathan O’Boyle (associate director of This House) plays it for laughs at the expense of dramatic tension and emotional engagement.

“Quit trying to be a comedian,” Mathew Horne is told in the role made famous by Dustin Hoffman in the Oscar-winning movie adapted for the stage by Dan Gordon. A directorial note which should have been levelled at the co-star of Gavin & Stacey whose physical tics and high-pitched vocals are straight out of the Abbot & Costello “Who’s on first base?” sketch which his autistic savant character is so fond of quoting.

Ed Speleers, on the other hand, making his stage debut as the swaggering car salesman on the slide Charlie Babbitt, is vocally underpowered and physically overshadowed. So much so that the audience have to wait until the final scene before humour gives way to heart. That said, both received a modest standing ovation from the albeit sparsely populated stalls on the opening night of their run at the Kings Theatre in Edinburgh. So if I was a character in one of Roger Hargreaves’ children’s books, perhaps it would be Little Mistaken.

Performance and direction issues aside, the neon-lit rectangles which form the backdrop to Morgan Large’s simple but effective suspended set are reminiscent of a 1980s Top of the Pops studio which is in keeping with the garish fashions of the time and poptastic tracks which underscore the slick scene changes. A swiftness of pace matched, unfortunately, by a machine-gun delivery which drains the condensed text of depth, feeling and nuance. Though the opposite is the case towards the end of the play when you could drive Charlie’s Buick convertible through the sound of silence.

Similarly, there is a flatness to some of the earlier scenes which is unintentionally comic and nothing short of bizarre: having sex with your trousers on, being one; another, filling a kettle with invisible water. “He ought to be on TV,” says Charlie of Ray after correctly predicting the number of toothpicks dropped on the floor. So should the characters, based on Jonathan O’Boyle’s far from classic screen to stage production.

Peter Callaghan
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