IMAGINE two actors being offered roles to play a pub landlord and landlady. Great, so far so good. Then comes the bombshell –they also have to interact with imaginary customers and play their parts as well.
So that’s 14 roles in total. Gulp.
That’s exactly the challenge that Greg Yates and Natalie Whittlesey took on. I can’t even imagine holding all those lines in my head.
As well as getting across their own embattled, challenging relationship, they also portrayed characters of all ages and types, from a schoolboy to a tired old lady and everything in between.
I particularly loved Greg’s portrayal of a bully. The fact that he made me loathe him is testament to his acting skills. It was fascinating to watch him turn his back to the audience, change his coat, shed the previous character then turn round to face the audience with a menacing demeanour.
Natalie convincingly played the bully’s sad, timid partner, but also shone in the completely opposite role of a rock chic character.
Whether the characters were outrageous, funny, sad, quiet, cringeworthy or larger than life, they embodied them all, including a change of accents.
Amazing what a simple change of coat, wig or hairstyle can do. Simply by exchanging one outfit for another Greg and Natalie inhabited their new characters.
The play, by Jim Cartwright, gave the audience snippets of characters’ lives, most having issues to deal with.
It was a thought-provoking play. We all inhabit various roles in our lives but who are we really? Could we change our whole personalities if we wished or is that only an actor’s job?
There were so many funny scenes that I wish the writer had chosen to end the play on a high rather than the downbeat final ending.
Full marks to the actors, director Sue Barker and all of the off-stage crew.
