AMUSING COMEDY

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33653, 1 October 1974, Page 18

AMUSING COMEDY

“Say Who You Are,” by Keith' Waterhouse and Willis Hall. Directed by Colin Alexander; Repertory Theatre, September 28 to October 5. Running time: 8 pun. to 10.5 p.m. A full frontal view of a wide-open telephone box catches the audience’s attention as the curtain rises at the Rep., a tribute to the architectural efficiency of the ■ Post Office which makes the ■ rest of the set look decidedly ■messy. However, it also sets the tone for an amusing ; comedy of crossed wires, ' crossed lovers, cross purposes. and very cross wives. ! “I had it in the palm of ' my hand and I threw it all away for five minutes (Measure,” laments Mary Smith, playing the woman in whose flat everything seems to get crossed. Her pleasure has consisted entirely in the amputation of her husband’s suit-sleeves, sending him off to the next day’s board meet-.

,ing looking “like the Venus de Milo.” Any cast feels better with a big audience, but in comedy the response is particularly important; for both performances so far there i have been disappointing : houses, and with a tiny audi- ■ ence last night there was at times a sense of dis- : illusioned actors simply going through the lines. Mary Smith and Alma Newman are both experienced actresses with a definite talent for comedy, but neither of them are very ! Favourably cast here: both ! Mary Smith and Richard Harvest (playing her husband) get good comedy from the half-witted response sort of situation, but they are not as good in aggressive stances, and this somewhat limits their power as a combination. Peter 800 l atone scampers 'his way happily through his

i sprightly dialogue, to all; appearances enjoying it immensely whether the audience bothers to come or not. For some reason, the programme contains a brief eulogy of the well-made play, a genre which highlights the deficiencies of this script: the “well-made play” made tight structuring an essential, but continuity is the major weakness of “Say Who You Are,” an entertaining but plotless comedy with a very flimsy story-line. The strong points of the play consist in the farcical narallels of the situations, and a sprinkling of good comic lines—a sprinkling which could easily become a barrage, given better timing, more confidence, and a decent audience. In any case, the cast certainly proved last night that they deserve the encouragement to bring out their definite potential. —H.D.McN.