'Soap' by Sarah Woods
2 April 2007The latest home-grown production in the Northampton Royal Theatre's 'Love and Madness' season was 'Soap' - a new play by Sarah Woods. In the first act (Episode 1) we were introduced to two very familiar TV soap operas. In a pub in the East End of London everyone keeps going on about the importance of 'family' before heading off to the cash and carry. Meanwhile on an Australian beach a few beers are being opened and the surf is up. But all is not entirely what it seems: some characters are beginning to question why their ages don't quite add up and why they only ever drink coffee (black with one sugar) and never anything else. Then a barrel needs changing in the East End pub and Lorna goes through the previously unused cellar door and finds herself on an Australian beach. Queue the theme music ... But then we were faced with a real-life soap opera cliffhanger as the curtain failed to rise for Episode 2 and we were told that the revolving stage had failed and the rest of the performance would have to be canceled! Nearly a week later we returned to Northampton to try again and I'm glad we did. As the two soap operas became increasingly intertwined and confused, 'Soap' became a very enjoyable farce in the vein of Michael Frayn's 'Noises Off' with echoes of other works where the protagonists begin to realise they are just characters in a work of fiction such as Pirandello's 'Six Characters in Search of an Author'. I also found myself thinking of 'The Wizard of Oz' as all the actors other than the two leads doubled as characters in both soaps - so when Lorna turns up in 'Oz' she sees a lot of strangely familiar faces. The cast looked like they were having a wonderful time sending up the soap genres and there was some great (over)acting. Authenticity was added by the presence of former Eastender Lucy Speed as Lorna and several other actors who had appeared in Eastenders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale. But the temperamental star of the show was undoubtedly the revolving stage!
posted by Robin Simpson @ 7:53 pm
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