|
Back
to top
Review
From
the Leamington Courier:
Football
and Flirting Make Great Comedy
The
Cubbington Players delivered a highly enjoyable performance of Chris
England and Arthur Smith's comedy An Evening With Gary Lineker.
The
play is set in a Spanish holiday resort on the day that England lost
on penalties to West Germany in the 1990 World Cup semi-final.
It
tells the story of Hazel Blenkinsop's Monica, and Bill, played by
Dan Hawkins, who are not facing up to their marital problems.
Bill
spends his time obsessively following the football, while Monica
fantasises about having an affair with Gary Lineker, the "Queen
Mother of football".
To
add to their problems, Bill's annoying friend Ian, played by Paul
West, is in tow and is scheming against him and blackmailing Monica
over her affair with Dan the boorish writer, played by James Suther.
Also in the mix is German tour-rep Birgitta, played by Teresa Coles
McGee who is lusted after by both Ian and Dan.
The
cast were very well chosen and gave a strong performance. Blenkinsop
and Hawkins performed well and you could believe that they were a
married couple with real problems.
Coles
McGee was very good as the grammatically obsessed German. Her accent
was very good ad she acted with humour and poise, without falling
into the trap of crude caricature.
Suther
was very good too, being loud and obnoxious, but my favourite
performance was from Paul West. He delivered the role of Ian with the
right amounts of sliminess and gormlessnss, which combined for a fine
comic performance.
There
were, though, one or two slips by the actors, but they did not
significantly harm my enjoyment of the piece.
The
set was well designed and had an authentic air - it really did fell
like a modestly priced Spanish hotel room.
The
play itself was well written with good characters, dramatic tension
and some great gags, such as: "Scotland, great on
paper...terrible on grass".
Overall,
the Cubbington Players should feel proud of themselves for providing
such an enjoyable night of drama and comedy.
8/10
Back
to top |