Review: BEFORE THE PARTY at The Goodwood Theatre

Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Friday 21st April 2017

Independent Theatre is presenting the comedy, Before The Party, written by Rodney Ackland and based on the short story of the same title by William Somerset Maugham. The short story was published in 1922, but the play was written in 1949, has been updated accordingly, setting it in the summer of 1947, in Surrey, and the social mores of that later time are reflected. The short story ends when the time comes to leave for the gArden Party, but the play has a second act, set when they return home and must prepare for visitors who have been, reluctantly, invited for an evening meal.

The Skinner family is the one for whom the word 'dysfunctional' was invented. A worse group of beings you would not wish to meet. The catalyst for the conflicts that arise in the play is the younger daughter, Laura Whittingham, who was widowed eight months previously in West Africa, where her husband worked, bringing her and her child back to the family home. The official story is that he died of malaria, but it is revealed that it was suicide. Laura, however, has yet another explanation.

Her return has triggered again the toxic relationship with her older sister, Kathleen, who is a thoroughly nasty piece of work, spying, and sneaking on the others to her mother and father. Father, Aubrey, a vacuous social climber with political ambitions, a blusterer, does little but pontificate, and mother, Blanche, vain and pretentious, is worried about how others see the family, going into denial over the revelations about Laura's late husband, and becoming delusional in trying to convince herself of alternative explanations that must, surely, be what really happened.

Laura has an admirer, David Marshall, in tow, and marriage is being considered. This, and the fact that she is refusing to wear black so soon after her husband's death, a year was considered an acceptable period of mourning, is driving Blanche frantic with worry over what this might do to the family's social position.

Only the youngest member of the family, twelve-year-old Susan, is likeable, primarily because she is nothing whatsoever like the rest of the family, and partly because she puts the others on the spot with her questioning and observations.

The other member of the household who appears in the play is Nanny, although other staff members are mentioned, and cause problems for Mr. and Mrs. Skinner. They would not, of course, have ventured into the family's private chambers, and the whole thing occurs in Laura's bed-sitting room. Nanny is the oil on their troubled waters, rising above the stupidity of her employers and mediating all of their disputes. What they would do without her, doesn't bear thinking about.

On reading the script, this play suggests a black comedy but director, Rob Croser, has chosen to move it along the scale towards farce, and that works particularly well. He has the audience laughing from start to finish, and what better tribute could there be than that?

Laura is played by Madeleine Herd, presenting a woman exploring her new found freedom as a widow, with a carefree approach to conventions, and a complete lack of concern for the opinions of those around her. Herd plays with the audience in a superb performance, portraying Laura as bright and bubbly, seemingly freed from a loveless marriage to a drunkard, and garnering our sympathy, then twisting our sensibilities as she reveals herself to be cold, calculating, and callous.

Laura Antoniazzi plays Kathleen, a little older and exceedingly bitter, past the usual age for marriage and now looking at spending life as a spinster, the maiden aunt to Laura's child. Antoniazzi gives an equally wonderful performance as the angry and devious Kathleen, the sister you'll love to hate. Her finely crafted performance leaves the audience with a degree of sympathy for Kathleen, once we come to understand her position as the sister who had nothing go right.

David Roach and Bronwyn Ruciak play the parents, Aubrey and Blanche, and the power of their performances leave one with a degree of sympathy for all of their children for being stuck with such awful parents. Whatever happens, they care nothing for the child involved, only about how things might reflect on themselves, he worrying about his run for a political appointment, and her worrying about her physical appearance and social standing. The vast experience of these two performers is brought to the fore in these two excellent portrayals.

Will Cox is Laura's beau, David Marshall, giving us a man bemused by the family and its individually unpleasant members, changing into a different person to please each of Laura's parents, and proving as crazy as his future in-laws when confronted with Laura's revelations.

Myra Waddell brings another of her wonderful performances to the play as the calm, sensible Nanny, holding the family together and putting out spot fires in the servants quarters caused by the senior Skinners and their prejudices. Waddell clearly delights in the role and the audience responds accordingly.

A real find is Jenna Bezuidenhout, who plays Susan, a little girl four years younger than her real age, but carrying it off brilliantly. Her Susan is vivacious, smart, and knows exactly how to needle her parents and Kathleen. I am sure that we'll be seeing much more of her in the future.

Croser and Roach designed the set, another in a long line of carefully researched and crafted pieces, lit well by Bob Weatherly, and the costumes, by the team of Judy Chapman, Pattie Atherton, IsabelleZengerer, and Sandra Davis look a million dollars.

Independent Theatre has added another to their unending string of high-quality productions.

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