“The Facts Of Life” An Enjoyable Production

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31781, 11 September 1968, Page 18

“The Facts Of Life” An Enjoyable Production

“The Facts of Life.” By Roger Macdongall. Riccarton Players. Guest Producer; Alex Henderson. Riccarton Town Hall. Running time 8 to 10 p.tn. “The Facts of Life,” from an acting point of view, is not a very ambitious play. Almost all the humour is generated from the dialogue, and the most successful productions have been on radio. But if the lazy domestic scenes make easy acting, the result is simply that one requires more of the dialogue. The Riccarton Players all exploited this intelligently, but none of them

managed to sustain fluid interaction throughout. Audiences are always prejudiced in favour of child actors, but even allowing this Greg Timms’ performance (as Jonathan Peters) was valiant. The role demands a persistent stutter, but without any signs of mental confusion. Greg Timms managed this particularly competently—his impediment was. convincing, and his statements had an air of calculated vagueness. His accomplices, Jill Frobisher (Barbara Davis) and Curlie (Doug Clarke), were adequate although Curlie lost his accent as the night went on. The grandparents, Eric Standford (Dick Trembath) and Mrs Peters (Dora Gatehouse) both portrayed excel, lently the degenerate moulds they wanted to push Jonathan into they spoke well, and Mrs Peters acted superbly the slight tipsiness in the first scene. Eric was somewhat too guarded on his first appearance, but soon released himself into the debauched senile playboy. Rachel (Christine Lookamp) interfered appropriately, but lacked the naive curiosity of the maid. Jonathan’s mother (Joan Lowe) recited most of the first scene, and her sarcasm lost most of its force.

Syd Cross, as Jonathan's father, worked his part hard and got a lot out of it. His enunciation was good, but he tended to speak a little laboriously and give a false significance to trivial lines.

The production had every sign of thorough rehearsal, although most of the cast mishandled at least one exit The introductory music was wellchosen, but broke off too abruptly—a fade would have made the transition gentler. But these are mostly minor details, and only slightly detract from the highly-relaxing and enjoyable entertainment provided by Alex Henderson’s production.—M. D. McN.