Review: Quartet at the Lichfield Garrick

It’s a bit of a hard sell – “Come and watch a play about four old folks in a residential home.”

Try persuading someone to come along and watch that with you.

So it was with some low expectations that I went to the Garrick Theatre Studio for the second night of the Lichfield Players’ production.

How wrong can you be?

Despite being a long play, with more or less the same set throughout, it was thoroughly absorbing. In fact, the longer it went on, the more intriguing it became.

The cast inhabited their characters and bounced off each other for the entire evening. Who would’ve thought there would be laugh out loud moments while the actors raged against the indignities of old age?

At times the audience felt as if the actors spoke directly to them and could identify with the problems. There were some brilliant one-liners and some funny sweary bits, all delivered with comic timing.

Yes, there were some prompts required, but given the sheer volume of lines to learn this was a minor defect. And as my friend remarked – it only enhanced how forgetful the elderly characters were supposed to be on occasions.

I am in awe of the cast’s ability to learn such a wordy script. Each character at times delivered lengthy, thought-provoking sentiments without over-acting. Their reactions to each other were believable as they made the conversations flow and feel natural.

There were some casual yet slick props/set changeovers. I loved the way the cast made it look effortless helping each other to dress in costume and apply make-up in time for the final finale while remembering their lines at the same time.

All credit to the actors and prop people who must have worked so hard during rehearsals.

Maureen George as Cissie was delightfully dippy, Ian Davies as Reginald juggled being intellectual and slightly bonkers magnificently, Mike Franklin as Wilfred was hilarious, and Mandy Davies as Jean made her complex character believable – and had great opera miming skills!

To the cast, bravo times four. Congratulations to director Carol Talbot and all involved in the production.

Quartet, by Ronald Harwood, runs until Saturday (22nd July). See
www.lichfieldplayers.co.uk for more details.