Maggie (Jennifer Edwards), Sandra (Sally Lawton), and Nigel (Daniel Holden) in rehearsal. ‘JUMBLE’
by Sally Lawton
TSL Productions at Studio Salford till Sat 1st May
Review by Brian Gorman
As I walked from Manchester’s Victoria Rail Station towards The King’s Arms pub on Bloom Street (home of Studio Salford), I passed a great many people on their way to see local megastar Peter Kay at the M.E.N. Arena. I honestly don’t think they could have had a better time than I did this evening. Multi-talented local writer/actor Sally Lawton (who, if there’s any justice in the world, should one day make it as big as Kay) has written a cracking piece of full-on, make ‘em ‘ave it, old-fashioned entertainment; and by ‘old-fashioned’ I mean the kind that tickles you silly without having to smuggle in any messages about ‘Broken Britain’ or ‘The Human Condition’ (take note please, John Godber!).
Baker Dale Primary School is preparing for their annual P.T.A. jumble sale, but headmaster Nigel (Daniel Holden sweating and twitching for England as a frankly terrifying hybrid of Hugh Grant and Lee Evans) has a dark secret; he’s forged the SATs results in order to beat a rival school whose headmistress just happens to be his workaholic, iron maiden of a wife, Rachel (Katherine Godfrey). Enter blonde bombshell Maggie (statuesque Jennifer Edwards, recently graduated from Salford University, and on this evidence, a real star in the making) who quickly steals Nigel’s heart to the horror of his obsessive, drama queen of a p.a. Jason (Christopher Taylor). But is Maggie all she seems?
Sally Lawton herself completes the Baker Dale team as the mentally unhinged, hyperactive busybody Sandra with a turbo-charged performance that threatened to suck all the oxygen from the room. Sandra is a fabulous creation that the bard of Salford, Mike Leigh, himself would be proud of. Every character in this gem of play is sharply defined, and performed to perfection by actors having a whale of a time. Christopher Taylor threatened to steal every scene he was in, with an absolutely exquisite performance that never once fell into self-indulgence; his spot-on comic timing, and extensive range of subtle and not-so-subtle expressions helping to create a character you miss every second he’s off stage. In perfect contrast, Katherine Godfrey as Rachel, brought a great deal of subtlety and understatement to her role that really paid dividends in her scenes with Sally Lawton; truly a case of immoveable object meeting irresistible force. How Ms Godfrey managed to keep a straight face while being manhandled and screamed at by a beserk munchkin in an ill-fitting blue cagoule, lop-sided NHS specs, and a knitted wooly hat, I’ll never know.
A simple set consisted of a large wall of children’s drawings, and a couple of desks and chairs, with a tiny child’s seat providing regular belly laughs when squeezed into by various characters. Director Mike Heath kept everything zipping along at a brisk pace, and orchestrated his team beautifully. I thoroughly enjoyed this ‘Jumble’, so much in fact that I didn’t want it to end; and it really isn’t often I can say that about a piece of theatre.
by Sally Lawton
TSL Productions at Studio Salford till Sat 1st May
Review by Brian Gorman
As I walked from Manchester’s Victoria Rail Station towards The King’s Arms pub on Bloom Street (home of Studio Salford), I passed a great many people on their way to see local megastar Peter Kay at the M.E.N. Arena. I honestly don’t think they could have had a better time than I did this evening. Multi-talented local writer/actor Sally Lawton (who, if there’s any justice in the world, should one day make it as big as Kay) has written a cracking piece of full-on, make ‘em ‘ave it, old-fashioned entertainment; and by ‘old-fashioned’ I mean the kind that tickles you silly without having to smuggle in any messages about ‘Broken Britain’ or ‘The Human Condition’ (take note please, John Godber!).
Baker Dale Primary School is preparing for their annual P.T.A. jumble sale, but headmaster Nigel (Daniel Holden sweating and twitching for England as a frankly terrifying hybrid of Hugh Grant and Lee Evans) has a dark secret; he’s forged the SATs results in order to beat a rival school whose headmistress just happens to be his workaholic, iron maiden of a wife, Rachel (Katherine Godfrey). Enter blonde bombshell Maggie (statuesque Jennifer Edwards, recently graduated from Salford University, and on this evidence, a real star in the making) who quickly steals Nigel’s heart to the horror of his obsessive, drama queen of a p.a. Jason (Christopher Taylor). But is Maggie all she seems?
Sally Lawton herself completes the Baker Dale team as the mentally unhinged, hyperactive busybody Sandra with a turbo-charged performance that threatened to suck all the oxygen from the room. Sandra is a fabulous creation that the bard of Salford, Mike Leigh, himself would be proud of. Every character in this gem of play is sharply defined, and performed to perfection by actors having a whale of a time. Christopher Taylor threatened to steal every scene he was in, with an absolutely exquisite performance that never once fell into self-indulgence; his spot-on comic timing, and extensive range of subtle and not-so-subtle expressions helping to create a character you miss every second he’s off stage. In perfect contrast, Katherine Godfrey as Rachel, brought a great deal of subtlety and understatement to her role that really paid dividends in her scenes with Sally Lawton; truly a case of immoveable object meeting irresistible force. How Ms Godfrey managed to keep a straight face while being manhandled and screamed at by a beserk munchkin in an ill-fitting blue cagoule, lop-sided NHS specs, and a knitted wooly hat, I’ll never know.
A simple set consisted of a large wall of children’s drawings, and a couple of desks and chairs, with a tiny child’s seat providing regular belly laughs when squeezed into by various characters. Director Mike Heath kept everything zipping along at a brisk pace, and orchestrated his team beautifully. I thoroughly enjoyed this ‘Jumble’, so much in fact that I didn’t want it to end; and it really isn’t often I can say that about a piece of theatre.
For more information: http://www.jumbletheplay.co.uk/
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