'People' Review
Venue: The Electric Theatre, Guildford
Dates: 24 November 2021 - 27 November 2021
OUR VERDICT:
Alan Bennett’s ‘People’ is in safe hands with the Guildburys!
The Guildburys’ new production of People by Alan Bennett is a real joy. The play, directed by Eddie Woolrich, is one of Bennett’s funniest and most satirical plays and it kept us laughing from beginning to end.
The situation: a crumbling stately home inhabited by Lady Dorothy Stacpoole and Iris, (both equally down at heel and aged) is offered to the National Trust by June, Dorothy’s sister.
She is an archdeacon and very much more switched on than Iris and Dorothy, who object strongly to giving up their dilapidated home to be opened to the public.
A shady ‘consortium’ makes a counter-bid that seems marginally more attractive to Dorothy, and the stand-off between the sisters is further muddied by a film crew who take advantage of their director’s earlier acquaintance with Dorothy to film a porn movie in the house. All the ingredients of farce are there, and they’re fully exploited to hilarious effect.
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The dialogue is studded with Bennett’s dryly witty jabs at establishment institutions: the National Trust, “with its army of unpaid volunteers” and its objectification of “English Heritage”; a mysterious “business consortium” (which allows the director to insert a couple of up-to-date digs at commercial interests); and the established church represented by June, who has her own eye on profits and her career in the church.
Gilly Fick plays Lady Dorothy, who just wants her home to be warm, with ensuite bathrooms and running hot water, without “people” traipsing through its rooms to view it and herself as museum pieces.
She transforms herself effortlessly from a despairing neglected old woman to a charming middle-aged lady enjoying the fun that the movie crew brings to the house: “I’m not a metaphor, and nor is this house” she says. Caroline Whillans as Iris, her companion, is also onstage continuously, giving a wonderful performance as a curmudgeonly old woman living in the past, who nevertheless misses nothing.
Her delivery of stinging asides and pointed rebuffs is brilliantly funny.
Cheryl Malam as June, the archdeacon sister, is a model of uptight disapproval of all but her own plans.
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The rest of the cast is equally strong.
Mike Pennick as the pushy National Trust representative is particularly memorable for his studied obsequiousness and unpleasant enthusiasm to reinvent "the story" of the house.
There’s some great ensemble acting when he’s onstage with the sisters. The porn film crew are appropriately farcical but beneficial additions to the household.
We loved the struggles of Colin, the unfortunate ex-actor (Craig Robertson), and the pneumatic “Latvian”, Brit (Sarah Gibbons) to create the necessary action (carefully orchestrated by Eddie Wollrich’s direction!)
‘People’ is only at the Electric Theatre until Saturday 27th November — I wish it could be on for longer. It’s another triumph for the Guildbury’s — brilliant all round.
