|
|
|
| |
|
|
| Edinburgh : A&E : Theatre: Reviews |
|
Theatre listings > Lachlan's Choice Hotel With the funding purse-strings remaining resolutely closed, Brunton Theatre Company are playing right up to the whistle with this, their final production. A light-hearted comedy with a serious side, Lachlan's Choice Hotel presents many themes that are close to the hearts of the Musselburgh-based company and to Scots. Following an opening run at Brunton Theatre, the company will be touring Scotland before disbanding. Lachlan's Choice Hotel is under new management and under threat from new competition. The Scottish football team's chances of making the World Cup are approximately (if I may be permitted the use of an Australian expression) bugger-all squared*. With their jobs and their team's chances on the line, things could not be worse. Thankfully all is not lost. According to their new manager, Ros, Jenny Ryan, all they need is a USP ("Unique Selling Point") and a positive go-get-em attitude. Yeah. All the action takes place in Lachlan's hotel bar with different tartans on the wall and floor, it's like STV's High Road's Hotel bar. Tommy's the barman play by Allan Sharpe with the comic approach Scots recall from Duncan Macrae to Fulton MacKay. Not a style this Aussie gets as well as my Scottish Editor. Tommy is attached to the hotel and his square of Wembley turf, (now we know where it went). Jordan Young as Kenny the lackadaisical young waiter and Ricky Callan as the English cook who claims to be a chef give good performances in smaller parts. So does Nicol Hay in a tiny role as Dougie the always in trouble son of the chambermaid Louise, Estrid Barton, a thinly written part. Not the rock-steadiest of opening nights, this is the company's final production after years of uncertainty and the strain showed. The play will be better received up north; closer to the play's setting and the issues it centres around. There are some good, if predicable, laughs, particularly after intermission, but quite a few mistimed punchlines on the first night meant the cast had to work hard to keep the comedy ball in the air. It's not an example of either Brunton or director Mark Thomson's best
work. Brunton has a well-earned reputation for quality work and suffered
because many (myself included) were expecting too much from Brunton's
final show. *Editor's note: all to f-k Theatre listings >>
|
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|||