Review: A LIFE IN THE THEATRE Shares The World On The Other Side Of The Curtain

Tuesday 8th November 2016, 8pm, Eternity Playhouse

Director Helen Dallimore breathes new life into David Mamet's A LIFE IN THE THEATRE. Letting the audience into the backstage secrets with humour and honesty, this fast paced two hander is recognisable for actors and enlightening for non performers.

Production designer Hugh O'Connor has created an incredibly detailed recreation of the backstage areas of a theatre. He gives the audience a glimpse out at the lights of an auditorium, the costume racks for quick changes, makeup tables and stage manager's desk. O'Connor has also done a wonderful job of gathering a range of costumes for theatre veteran Robert (John Gaden) and newcomer John (Akos Armont) to cycle through quickly for the multitude of scenes from plays they participate in and the moments of reality between. O'Connor's set is enhanced and divided into separate spaces by Christopher Page's lighting that includes the bright lights of the stage and the single ghost light placed onstage in preparation for the night when everyone has gone home. Special note should go to Assistant Stage Manager Sunil Chandra who is almost a third, silent character, as he becomes Robert's dresser and is stage manager to the fictional theatre recreated onstage.

Gaden gives a textured performance as Robert, the seasoned performer in the twilight of his career, feeling the heavy breath of the young talent breathing down his neck. He captures the conceit the older man has with regards to his own opinion of his talents, a bitterness towards the people he shares a stage with, in particular towards John's success, and a sadness and loneliness as he feels his career drawing to its end and the realisation that he doesn't have the circle of friends that John does.

As the younger John, Armont allows the character to grow from the eager to please, wet behind the ears newcomer to a confident, successful performer being courted by film studios and receiving rave reviews. He allows John to learn from Robert and evolves to becoming arrogant and forgetting his colleague and friend as his star rises.

The two have a great physicality as they move between the stage scenes, presented to the rear of the real stage, but projected on the television monitors around the auditorium in the same way monitors feed back to performers waiting backstage and in the wings. They share a wonderful pace and connection that reinforces the fact that these men spend so much of their lives together within the theatre that they are like family.

To a degree, Dallimore has presented the work to appeal more to her fellow performers which will come out to support the play as evidenced by the short sharp bursts of laughter earlier on in the play. Non-performers with a more limited knowledge of the backstage antics seemed to take a little longer to warm to the line between reality and satire but eventually the whole audience is in on the joke. Dallimore plays up the comedy with the costume and scene change interludes and Jed Silver's sound design.

A LIFE IN THE THEATRE is an entertaining and amusing look at the life of performers where all the glitz and glamour is stripped away. A great night of familiar moments for performers and those in the industry, and an interesting insight for anyone else.

A LIFE IN THE THEATRE
Eternity Playhouse
4 November - 4 December 2016

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