Restaurant theatre

Press, 14 March 1978, Page 7

Restaurant theatre

By HOWARD McNAUGHTON

“Run to the Round House Nellie, He Can’t Corner You There,” by Schubert . Fendrick. Directed by Gladys Thin for The Elmwood Players at the Cellar Restaurant, Mandeville Street, March 12 and 19.

When the Glory Gulch Railway community finds itself hosting the main investors in the Happy Gusher Oil Company, no-one suspects anything — at least, not until Hugo Swindle attempts to divert a train over the prostrate heroine into the railways workshop surrounded by bogs of oil.

This is the domain of the so-called “old-time melodrama,” which is in fact a modem genre parodying a theatre form which the Victorians took relatively seriously. So it is refreshing to find the Elmwood Players choosing not to mutilate a genuine theatrical antique (as is often done with melodrama), but picking a modern imitation which is apparently as recent as 1973.

In just 40 minutes, the after-dinner audience at the Wine Cellar is taken through the full gamut of melodramatic expectations, right down to a section of railway track squeezed on to the tiny cabaret stage. This is the most complex set I have seen at the Wine Cellar, and Gladys Thin’s exploitation of it is excellent: the fastmoving action is continually coming from a different angle, and many of the difficulties inherent in such a theatrical situation are overcome. The cast, too, is vigorous, capable, and engaging, with Dmitri Gabara doing an excellent job as (stand-in) Master of Ceremonies — the more remarkable when you consider that he is klso doing a major role at the Elmwood Playhouse. Sterling Worth and Nellie Guage, the hill-billy hero and heroine, make a charmingly ludicrous duet of virtue as

done by Roger Hynd and Dianne Verey, accompanied from time to time by Diane Bridges as the heroine’s widowed mother; as is normal in melodrama, their characters are totally devoid of intelligence, foresight, resourcefulness, sexuality, even animal instinct but their contribution to the drama is nevertheless immense. The villions, of course, are another matter: Helen White does Sheila Baggage, the female heavy, and Donald Bruce exploits his capacious moustaches and eyeballs to fullest advantage as the villain. Some lively music from the cast adds to an evening of restaurant theatre which last night’s audience clearly enjoyed very much.