Metatheatical enjoyable abounds in The Play With Speeches on the Jack Studio Theatre
“Are you going to audition or not?”
Returning to the Jack Studio Theatre after a profitable run final yr, Olive & Stavros’ The Play With Speeches is a metatheatrical romp that delights in gently blurring the traces between play and viewers. From the anxious whispers from the forged as we arrive, to chats about ticket costs, outright participation for some and votes on essential selections, there’s no snoozing within the balcony for this one!
Those anxious whispers come as a result of as per the vanity of the present, we weren’t anticipated. Penny and Anthony (with a th, natch) reserved the theatre for auditions for a brand new present and the compromise is that we’re allowed to remain and watch the parade of would-be thespians. But this former couple are struggling to regulate to their new relationship as director and author, which solely worsens as they undergo the auditions.
James Woolf’s play is cannily constructed – a sequence of audition speeches from a sequence of amusingly fictional dramas make up the play-within-the-play, all prefaced with hilariously pretentious intros from Anthony and interlaced with the rising tensions between the creatives. And then thrown into the combo are the mini psychodramas of the auditionees themselves, including to the emotional maelstrom and elevating the comedian potential.
Directed by Katherine Reilly and Ursula Campbell, there’s an actual heat to proceedings that retains its humour inclusively enjoyable. Matthew Parker revels within the fruitiness of Anthony – the purse second, mouthing together with traces – and Reilly’s drily long-suffering Penny performs off him very well. There’s nice help from the remainder of the corporate and if I might need trimmed slightly and junked the interval to make it run straight by way of, it’s nonetheless extremely gratifying.