Theatre 'Off the Rails’

Press, 27 November 1979, Page 6

Theatre 'Off the Rails’

By Howard McNaughton “Off the Rails,” by John Waterhouse. Directed by Alex Henderson for the Elmwood Players; Fulton Avenue Playhouse, November 24 to December 1. Runatime; S p.m. to p.m. When a curtain rises on four doors, a serverv hatch, and a cupboard under a staircase, that can only mean traditional farce. Th’* nlav is so thoroughly traditional a farce that much of the action s eems simply an exercise in door-opening, and when a drunken Scotsman appears with some bagpines in the last act, we have long topped expecting reasons f or anything. There is one slight distinguishing feature to this plav. i “Off the Rails” seems to be John Waterhouse’s eouivat nt ,0 *® n Bus*'” — the formula fits preciselv. from the petty/Occupational'

crises down to the character range. But he intensifies the farce by having the household actuallv in the railway station, so that there is no escape from the demands of British Railways. Confronted with stereotypes that allow little depth of interpretation, the cast responds variously. Some roles — notably the Scotsman — are so relentlessly corny that the actors can get nowhere, and about half the cast settles for belly-laughs from the back row. Two actors make valiant efforts at sustained characterisation. Arthur Chanman plavs , Harrv Bentwhistle. the Stationmaster with the sort of heavy-weight resourcefulness that gives some illusion of anchoring an elusive nlot; if it is by no means his finest role, he at least sustains much of the action by his stage presence. Richard Parsons,. does the

■ stammering assistant as a : tall, gormless, scrawny, uncoordinated goof, forever en- ■ gaged in apparently harmless missions (like whitewashing ' I the Gents); with a very efficient sense of farcical [strategy, he easily mono-i-polises the laughs. • In spite of Alex Hender- ; son’s well-conceived set and • the best intentions of the : cast, it cannot be forgotten , ] that this sort of play was a ; cliche even before television J did it to death. A contemporary farce needs a filament : of topicality if it is to survive against the classics in the genre, and a play which de- : rives its basic humorous energv from a svstem as distanced and as hackneyed as British Railways must have (difficulty in holding its audience. This is, of course, a personal point of view: last evening’s audience was relatively large, and at some oarts of the production the laughter came easily.