Press reviews and interviews.....
Above - photos by Ian Fraser
Link here to interview for the wireless theatre company
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STAGE STRUCK:
Theatreworld Internet Magazine:
Much of the appeal of Simon Gray's comedy thriller "Stage Struck" is concentrated in the central character, Robert, outstandingly portrayed by Alan Bates at the London premiere in November 1979 and now by Paul Nicholas in this current revival directed by Mark Piper. When the curtain rises, Robert is in a jovial mood as he converses with neighbour Herman (Robert Fitch} who confides that he's having an affair with a married woman. Robert gives some light-hearted advice and then Herman leaves and does not reappear until much later in the play. We gather from what Robert has said that he was in his younger days a first-rate stage manager in a provincial repertory company. But now he is content to keep house for his wife Anne, a successful West End actress, to whom he's been happily married for seven years. Or so he imagined, until tonight when Anne, arriving home from the theatre, tells him she wants him out of the house. Delivering her lines with just the right angry and purposeful conviction, Mary Tamm convincingly portrays Anne's vigorous action and composed demeanour as she tells him how she'd always been aware of his infidelity. Her outburst comes as a shock to Robert, who tries to reason with her, but then her ruthless attitude prompts him into reviving some of his old thespian talents and he shows a determined resistance in marked contrast to the genial kindness shown earlier. There is a furious argument and the curtain falls on the first act with gunshots. . Next comes one of the best parts of the play when Robert is visited by Widdecombe (Ray Lonnen) whom Anne had recommended to consult for treatment, having herself been to him for psychiatric analysis. The interest of the audience is held by the skill with which Robert induces Widdecombe to reveal his complex character, and he finally makes it apparent that he's not a genuine psychiatrist, and not only that but, more surprisingly, that - as his accent changes - he could be anything from a private detective to a small time crook. But in this fascinating psychological drama, with its daring twists and turns, the main interest lies not so much in the characterisation as in the situation the characters create and there is certainly no lack of visual excitement, though one wonders why nobody throws a chair at Robert when he is threatening them with a gun or a knife.
Kind thanks to Graham Powner.
Reviewed by George Cranford for Theatreworld Internet Magazine.
Richmond Theatre London
MIXED FEELINGS
Mixed Feelings is an intriguing new play by Eric Chappell. The two halves head in very different directions and the audience is kept guessing throughout. Despite the fact that it handles the sensitive subject of a man's re-entry into society after a sex change operation, there are no clichés and no awkward moments. The entire play revolves around Vernon, superbly played by Paul Nicholas. The first half sees him at home, just after his return to his wife Jan, played by Mary Tamm, and daughter Zoe, in British suburbia. He has been AWOL in Casablanca for six months and each person with whom he has contact has a different theory about his disappearance. His wife is convinced he had an affair, his best friend thinks that he was having a mid-life crisis and his boss believes that he suffered a nervous breakdown. The situations in which the truth is revealed to each person are witty and hilarious. Vernon spends the second half dressed in drag, which enables him to raise easy laughs but also some great one-liners. The set by Michael Holt is very good - the entire play takes place in the front room of Vernon and Jans suburban semi, which gives it the feeling of a television sitcom. Hailing from the sitcom Just Good Friends Paul Nicholas is perfectly at home in this environment. His wife is a great counterbalance and she is played by Mary Tamm as a straight talking, no-nonsense women, who appears to take the revelations in her stride. Her poise and authority are key to ensuring that the play does not turn into a farce. The entire cast is in fact excellent, making the most of the imaginative and well-paced script and well directed by Jeremy Meadows. John Benfield plays Vernons best friend Eddie with energy, whilst Alan Granvilles interpretation of Fletcher, Vernon's prejudiced, racist, sexist boss, is sublime. Mixed Feelings is thought provoking and a joy to watch. It begs the question, what would you do if a key person in your life changed not just their appearance, but everything about themselves, including hobbies, partner, and their sex?
© MW
Mixed Feelings is in Richmond on the 10th of May until the 15th of May, 2004.
Richmond Theatre interview
Helen Taylor
A NEW comedy, Mixed Feelings by Eric Chappell arrives at Richmond Theatre next week.
Paul Nicholas leads the cast in a play about marital misunderstandings, a midlife crisis and the realisation that people are never quite what they seem.
Last week I spoke to playwright Eric Chappell - one of Britain's top comedy writers. His award-winning work includes 'Rising Damp', 'Only When I Laugh', 'The Bounder','Home to Roost' and 'Duty Free'.
"I wrote this play about three years ago," he told me. "After working in television for many years it is great to be involved with live theatre. If a piece of mine is on the small screen and seen by millions I might get a
couple of phone calls. In the theatre I can sit in the audience and feel the buzz - and that is wonderful."
In this play Vernon (Paul Nicholas) has been married for years and he and his wife Jan are in a suburban rut. Vernon escapes from his marriage of inconvenience for six months and when he returns it emerges that somehow, he is a very different person. During one hilarious evening, Jan searches for answers, Vernon is in search of himself while their
friends are searching for a way to broach a delicate subject.
"When the production team decided they wanted to do this play," Eric Chappell continued, "I couldn't think who they would cast as Vernon - but Paul Nicholas is just great. He works with such restraint and manages to achieve tptal belie vafoility. I hadn't seen Mary Tamm working before - after all those years in the business I don't see much television - but she is just so good I think she should have a show of her own!
"I have worked out that I wrote 200 sitcoms and had had the money and the attention and I'm loving the fact that I have an opportunity to come back to theatre itself. I sometimes follow my plays around - I've been to Stockholm, Warsaw and Rome to watch performances. Obviously I don't understand a word - but at least I knefw what's going on and it's a grand excuse to visit different parts of the world!"
Mixed Feelings
Theatre Royal, Plymouth Tue 1st June - Sat 5th June
Getting in touch with his feminine side...
Hard to believe Paul Nicholas is heading toward sixty. He still looks the blond blue eyed charmer familiar from his role as Vince in the BBC comedy series Just Good Friends. Women have always loved his boyish good looks and his non-threatening characters, well here he really gets in touch with his feminine side. Just suspend belief and accept that he disappears from his family for six months and comes back as a woman. A trip to Casablanca and a few hours under the surgeons knife and he is reborn as Verna. Seems a bit extreme especially when he explains that he has always wanted to be a woman...to wear womens clothes and have men open doors for him/her. Sorry but there is a bit more to being a woman than that! Takes more than a frock and lipstick darling! The script tries to explain the difference between a transvestite and a transsexual but goes on to show Verna as only concerned with the superficialities of clothes and hair. He/she is NOT gay, yet the play opens with music by Marc Almond and Freddie Mercury - two of the gayest icons I can think of! Nicholas wears male clothes for the first half and beautifully captures certain gestures and postures in a truly feminine way, but donning the wig and skirt for the second half turned this into a ridiculous farce. Some of his lines are very funny though and his description of the sex change surgery as "turning the sock outside in" did make me chuckle. Mary Tamm as Jan the long suffering wife held this production together and for me and gave the best performance. She also gets to voice the lines that Verna is not a real woman as she has never had periods! But Jan too has a bit of a secret...can you guess what it is yet?
Dick Whittington and His Amazing Cat
LOUD HISSES AND BOOS GREET MARY TAMM WHEN SHE WINS THE FIRST round as Queen Rat in a strong performance from the green corner. She sets the pace for the whole show as the children get louder and louder. The comedy team continues the good work, led by Adam Daye as Sarah the Cook with Lee James as Captain Bullseye, Kip Barrs as his mate and Ken Joy's Idle Jack. But after a rousing start, the dialogue goes flat as the cast dwells on in lengthy conversations on Dick's impending petty cash disaster. The show settles down again on voyage to Morocco with lively song and dance routines, the usual drill with mops and an excellent Twelve Days of Christmas. Fenella Fielding calms down the delirium as a quiet and charming Fairy Bowbells and Matthew Harper is an imposing figure as Dick Whittington. He sings very well with his partner Anna Conway as Alice and her father is strongly played by Tony Leyton. Sharon Watson meows as the cat and Krystian Wharton is the bearded Emperor. Corletts Characters cover the fascinating underwater scene and the Doris Holford Stage School provides the dancers. Presentation is colourful with attractive costumes and well built scenery.
Peter Tatlow
PRODUCTION INFORMATION
Management: Duggie Chapman for Sutton Theatres
Cast: Fenella Fielding, Mary Tamm, Adam Daye, Ken Joy, Matthew Harper, Anna Conway
---MARY AND DRIVING!!!-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Who's that high-speed girl? -
Steering Column Times, The (London, England) January 20, 1996
Author: Eithne Power
Mary Tamm began travelling in a Mini and ended up in the Tardis.
Eithne Power reports
Mary Tamm, half White Russian, half Estonian, born in Bradford, came into her own 17 years ago as Dr Who's dynamic assistant, Romana. Since then, she has worked constantly (most recently in Brookside), married a working Lloyd's name, sold houses to pay off Lloyd's and taken the Formula Ford drivers' course at Brands Hatch. It must have been all that travelling in time that gave her a taste for speed. One of the reasons she gave it up was that she had absolutely no fear behind the wheel and was probably a bit reckless; she admits it never entered her head that she might get killed.
How did you learn to drive?
With a one-man driving school and a lot of pent-up longing in my mid-twenties. At home in Bradford we didn't have a car, and I was constantly standing at bus stops vowing, one day, one day I'll learn to drive and I'll be free.
What was your first car?
A green Mini that I bought for £200 from a friend of a friend of a friend who had a friend, a mechanic, who told me it was a sound machine even though it had four bald tyres that escaped my notice at the time. After that I had four more Minis in different colours before graduating to a Mercedes! The day after I passed my test, I drove on the motorway to Manchester in that first Mini, dripping blood after having had a tooth out. I drove with one hand, drugged to the eyeballs and mopped up the blood with the other.
What car do you drive now?
My husband's BMW, and my own wonderful little Triumph Acclaim. It's a great little runaround . I'm teaching my daughter, Lauren, to drive in it. We use a disused airfield, and we're extremely decorous!
Do you enjoy driving?
Does a fish enjoy swimming? I adore it, maybe because I came to it so late. As a girl, I was always sort of stuck. I haunted bus shelters. Now that I can go where I want when I want, I'm like Toad of Toad Hall. I sometimes feel incredibly happy driving in the country, Guns'n'Roses blasting away on the stereo or Carmina Burana. Carl Orff conjures up visions of men and horses and armour and stuff like that ... the simple pleasures of life.
What is your dream car?
An Aston Martin Volante. I like a car that goes from zero to 60 in three seconds. There's a kind of ecstasy when you're going at speed, it's probably to do with the urge to escape.
What is your most hated car?
The Ford Sierra. Every time someone cuts me up, it's inevitably a man in a Ford Sierra. The Sierra pretends to be sporty, but it just can't deliver.
What is your worst habit in a car?
Swearing at men in Ford Sierras and making absolutely hideous faces at myself in the driving mirror. I pull my lips right up over the gums so that I look like a lipless toothead. A jogger spotted me the other day at traffic lights and clutched his heart in terror. My facial aerobics make me feel good, but they're pretty horrible for onlookers.
What infuriates you most about other drivers?
People who dawdle around in the outside lane at 80, 90 or 100 - mostly they are driving Ford Sierras.
What is the most unusual thing you've done in your car?
I managed to park about 18cms from the kerb when the steering wheel came off in my hands on the A40 while I was going to a Dr Who rehearsal. I had to do everything simultaneously, brakes, handbrake, gears. I didn't panic. I'm good in a crisis; just as well, because I had a lot in those Minis.
Have you ever had points on your licence?
Yes, but not for speeding, as one might expect. I went over a double white line five years ago and got an endorsement.
What would you do if you became Secretary of State for Transport?
What they do in Amsterdam and fine everyone driving alone into the city centre. It seems to work there. And again, like in Holland, I'd introduce bicycle paths. I've got a bike myself, but knowing there are other drivers out there like me I am afraid to ride it.
What safety precautions do you take as a woman driver?
Most of the dangers I run I provoke myself by cutting other drivers up. But I always lock my doors and find that picking up the mobile phone sees them off quite quickly.
