REVIEW: TIMING, The Kings Head Theatre, October 29 2009

It's half a lifetime since I lived in Islington, but a rare trip up North, to see the first play written by TV's Alistair McGowan, tells me that little has changed. Even in these recessionary times, there's still estate agents stacked along Upper Street between the antique shops and delicatessens; there's still five lads hailing a taxi outside a restaurant; and, behind the Kings Head pub in its intimate little theatre, there's still a bunch of media types watching plays about other media types agonising about whether it's okay to be a media type.

Timing is set in a recording studio populated by couples who slowly reveal that there is real substance driving their petty squabbling. Julian (Edward Baker-Duly) and Amanda (Georgia Mackenzie) as the "Voices" (sorry, "Voiceover artists") are trapped behind the glass of the studio and trapped by the messy end to their long-gone relationship. Dino (Dean Gaffney) and Wes (Peter Hamilton Dyer) are advert copywriters trapped by each having what the other wants, each facing an uncertain future as the partnership fractures under the tension that imbalance fuels. Phil (Paul Bazely) and Leonie (Louise Ford) as the engineer and producer are trapped, but satisfied, Phil with his orthodox family life and Leonie with her Peaches Geldof-lite round of showbiz parties. Preston (Matt Cross) does a fine slapstick turn as studio gopher, just happy to be along for the ride.

Weighing in at 90 minutes without an interval, there are plenty of jokes, a re-working of Bill Hicks' tirades against advertising and pointless consumerism, and some musing on how children's presence or absence affects lives. There's also a bit of fun with the soundproof "glass partition" between mixing desk and studio, which requires a button to be pressed for Julian's and Amanda's speech to be heard by the other characters - a devIce That starts off amusing, but finishes up just a bit too tricksy.

In so small a space as this well-appointed theatre, it's critical that the actors establish an empathy with the audience - who wants to spend the evening ten foot away from someoNe You don't like? - and each of the cast does this, without the audience really rooting for any of them. That - along with a punchy script and the relentless repetition of the empty cant of the advert the cast are trying to create, each time with more absurd accents, more portentous locution or more pernickety fault-finding - is the key to the play's success. The audience are looking at themselves, their own dilemmas and their own uncertain futures and feel comforted that they are not alone. And what's wrong with that?

 

Timing is at The Kings Head Theatre, Islington until November 8.  

 

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