Not Quite Home

Last week I was asked to review a show in my home town. Well, not quite my home town I should say but its much richer neighbour, Cheltenham. My visit was to the Cheltenham Everyman to catch the opening of the London Classic Theatre’s production of The Birthday Party. Now I have to admit that while Harold Pinter is not really my cup-of-tea, I understand his import in the new wave of dramatists that were nurtured in the late 1950s and 1960s.

His voice must have jarred enormously with those used to listening to the works of Rattigan and Coward but the cut and thrust of Pinter’s dialogue paved the way for Orton, who is one of my favourite dramatists. In fact, there is an eerie similarity between Sloane’s relationship with Kath in Entertaining Mr Sloane and Meg’s relationship with Stanley…anyway, I digress. The point is that I was in Gloucestershire again and visiting the Everyman for the first time since the early 1990s.

 

I have to say, in keeping with Cheltenham’s reputation as an exclusive county-town, the Everyman is a beautiful theatre. A Matcham no less, and the renovations that had taken place about five years ago only served to enhance its beauty. Also, being a regional theatre, it has the added luxury of plenty of leg-room (in the stalls at least) so I could practically stretch out and watch the play unfold at my leisure. 

 

The problem was that due to the nature of the touring set, this intimate play seemed to be about 100ft away, atop a raised platform on the already raised, pros arch stage. It wasn’t helped by the fact that the theatre was half empty and quite frankly, understandably so. It was a fairly miserable night and you’d have to be a major Pinter fan to fork out good money to see this. The production lacked excitement and energy but I also couldn’t help thinking that it seriously lacked contemporary appeal. 

 

Many of its cultural references would probably seem alien to young audiences today and whereas Orton motivates his game of cat and mouse with sex, Pinter’s equally dark sport uses nostalgia as his most subversive weapon. It’s a good play but one that a director could easily get wrong. However to be honest, my main concern was that unless this was a set-book, where will the London Classic Theatre find its audience? Not in Cheltenham, that’s for sure. In fact, the original production of Pinter’s The Birthday Party ran for only 6 performances before closing to mostly vile notices. This production is playing at Cheltenham for only 4 nights, before moving on to a laudably extensive tour around the UK. Hopefully both the production and the audiences will flourish a little along the way.