Review: Garden Path at the cornerHOUSE
This is Talk About Productions latest work, a pair of loosely connected audio plays being recorded before a live audience. The “radio producer” introducing the evening encouraged his extras, us the audience, in the art of laughing for radio. This was a useful preface to this rather curious medium of entertainment. Unusual it might be but entertaining it certainly was. The two plays have theme – honesty – and opening and closing lines in common. A single cast adapts well to the two sets of roles.
The first of the two plays is an aural farce set against the background of the MPs expenses scandal. A non-entity MP with a grand but unaffordable pile on the Isle of Wight, uses a dubious claim to fame and a tiny studio flat in London as levers to try to change his fortune. Clusters of relatives, and an enquiring journalist, add tensions to an already clumsy life. Throwing open the crumbling pile to less than grateful visitors adds another dimension to the sound-scape.
The second story is futuristic and space bound, with colonists escaping from earth on convenient but unreliable shuttles to Mars. Malfunctioning hard ware, a courier company that fails to deliver and some rather surprising wildlife add complexity to the humour. The would be colonists are ungrateful and complaining and the crew may well not be as competent as one would hope for this risky means of relocation.
These are exemplary pieces, with strong writing delivered by a gifted and enthusiastic company. It is a joy to see the work acted out and the audience ( or extras, if you like ) had a great time and needed no retakes for their contribution of laughter; this was plentiful and genuine. The cast of six adapted well to the variety of roles. There was of necessity a deal of 'doubling' and it will be interesting to hear how the individual characters come across in the final recording; seeing the characters live, with gestures, body language and so on provides defining points not available to a simply listening audience. The sound effects add greatly to the feel of the piece and were seamless and unobtrusive.
All in all a real triumph for Talk About. It is to be hoped that the recorded versions of these plays find a wider audience than the cornerHOUSE studio, and that Talk About continue to explore this novel medium.
Ian Davies - Chair, The CornerHOUSE Trustees
September 2010
