A Play on Words
Bristol Old Vic

For A Play on Words Elwyn Johnson puts together a selection of scenes and songs from the works of Bernard Shaw and Noel Coward performed by students of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in the third year of the overseas course.  And what a very talented bunch they are too!  Coming from all corners of the globe I was impressed to note that they obviously had no difficulty in mastering the clipped upper-class accents of the time necessary for the plays’ authenticity. 

The first half has three different plays; Overruled, a short playlet, Act II of Buoyant Billions and Act III of You Never can Tell.  Overruled is an amusing tale of two couples becoming amorously entangled (all done with words!) and its inevitable outcome, whilst Buoyant Billions tells of a jungle adventure which culminates with the best stage crocodile I have ever seen.  He wasn’t listed in the credits so may have been real.  The action in You Never can Tell takes place in the Claredon family’s sitting room at The Marine Hotel where they have returned after a long stay in Madeira.  This play is part of a volume of Shaw’s plays entitled Plays Pleasant and so it is too, regaling a comedy of errors throughout the Clarendon family life. During all the three plays the scenery is changed effortlessly before your very eyes through sitting rooms to jungle and back again.

The second half has Private Lives and Act III of Hay Fever and time for some very sparkling singing and dancing by all cast members.  Private Lives concerns a divorced couple who meet again whilst on their respective honeymoons with second spouses; how unlucky is that but it provides the perfect situation for some very witty exchanges and deft comedic stagecraft.  Hay Fever catalogues the outlandish behaviour of the Bliss family on a country house weekend party.  The combination of all these plays make the perfect showcase for the multi-talented cast to show their great capabilities in changing character at will with their skilled performances. 

We had a brilliant evening and naturally went home humming all the tunes.  As I’m sure everybody knows, The Bristol Old Vic needs all our support now in its forthcoming refurbishment to make sure that we can go on seeing such marvellous shows in the future.

Jacquie Vowles
June 2007
Bristol Old VIc
Tel: 0117 987 7877
www.bristol-old-vic.co.uk