Prurience and the prompt

Press, 15 November 1977, Page 6

Prurience and the prompt

By

HOWARD McNAUGHTON

“The Bare Facts,’’ presented by the Elmwood Players at the Canterbury Inn Winecellar, November 13 and 20. "No nudes is good news." I spake the soothsayer, who had obviously not seen the latest Elmwood production atj the Winecellar. Of course, he might have ; known from the title that he would have been in for a situational farce with an’ oppressive quantity of innuendo about nudity. He i might have guessed, too, that, it would be a discreetly suggestive glimpse of’ four female office workers who find themselves booked into a holiday in a nudist camp, and whose ultimate perm is-' siveness far exceeds the 1

playright's and performers’! courage. But he could not have known that the promise of (“a first time for everything” was to mean a new Commonwealth record for the maximum number of prompts to be scored in 40 minutes. To be fair, the prompts | I were not what irked me most ( — indeed, in the right kindi .of farce it is quite proper for) the prompt to take the lead role. Here, it was more the! unmitigated prurience of rhe ' whole operation that troubled I 'me — that the same theatre! group could be offering,; i simultaneously, a play as! ■joyously iconoclastic as) “Lock Up Your Daughters” • i in one theatre while, ini another, the punch line j should be as banal as “I just! couldn’t put a face to the) bottom.” 1 Advisedly, everyone con-

'' cerned wishes to remain (anonymous in a production ■ which cannot do anything to ' further the cause of restaurant theatre in Christchurch — which, it must be noted, has been advanced in the past by Alex Henderson and the Elmwood Players more (than anyone. | Ultimately, though, no i evening at the Winecellar may be less than successful, because all the entertainment : comes in the context of a delectable, four-course runI ning buffet, ideally suited for (theatre enthusiasts. Reviewing plays means that I usually miss the , liqueurs and music afteri wards, but by that stage the j whole audience always seems Iso immersed in the atmos■phere that no single item could spoil it.