"The acting was faultless..."


Charley's Aunt, EPPiC Theatre, Ecclesfield

The intimate Ecclesfield Theatre was the final night of a tour for Hambledon Productions's rendition of Brandon Thomas's farce.
Set in Oxford University in 1892, two young men, Jack and Charley have the ominous tasks of manufacturing a situation where they can propose marriage to their sweethearts. A lunch engagement, with Charley's aunt as chaperone is the ideal solution. When she is delayed however, their male friend Babbs, who happens to be dressed in drag at the opportune moment, is persuaded to step in.
John Hewer, who runs the Production company with his sister, Rachael, gives himself the plum role of Babbs, providing most of the laughs with plenty of slapstick, girly shrieking and facial gymnastics. Equally good are the more subtle performances from Adam Shannon and William Weir as Jack and Charley respectively. They have the unenviable task of stemming Babbs's histrionics and restoring the appropriate airs and graces of the era. They are also good at displaying the social awkwardness men feel when articulating their feelings to women. This is as true today in 2009 as it was in 1892.
Laurence Mager provides good support as Jack's dad. He has a formidable stage presence helped by his stature and girth in the ilk of Brian Blessed.
Helen Crawshaw also puts in a confident, measured performance as Kitty, who finally gets a proposal from poor stuttering Jack.
John Hewer also directed this successful romp with some great period costumes provided by Jane Blenkhorn and Bunny Stokes.
Stephen Grigg, SHEFFIELD STAR, 8th September 2009


COMIC DELIGHT DEFIES YEARS
Charley's Aunt, Riverhead Theatre, Louth

Charley's Aunt first appeared on the London stage a little over 100 years ago, proving a huge success and breaking all box office records at the time.
The farce has remained popular and some may remember the film version starring Arthur Askey, but this week Hambledon Productions took the opportunity to stage a revival at Louth's Riverhead Theatre.
Siblings Rachael and John Hewer founded the locally-based theatre company and for this production, John has adapted the script, assumed the part of director and cast himself in the title role.
The story unravels during the course of a single day in Oxford back in 1892; a time when young ladies required chaperones and young men could still be heard to utter 'By gad' and 'beastly'.
Adam Shannon and William Weir are ideal as the upper-class undergraduates Jack Chesney and Charley Wykeham intent on proposing to the genteelly played Kitty Verdun (Helen Crawshaw) and Amy Spettigue (Natalie Glew).
The impending visit of Charley's aunt solves the question of a suitable chaperone, until a telegram announces a delay in her arrival.
With typical student cunning, they persuade their friend and budding actor, Lord Fancourt Babberley, to dress up and impersonate the aunt.
Of course, in the true tradition of farce, this is the point at which the story descends into absurdity.
This early-day Lily Savage quickly attracts the amorous attentions of Jack's father, Sir Francis (Laurence Mager), and Amy's father, Stephen (David Turner).
Further complications arise when the real aunt, Donna Lucia d'Alvadorez (Sophie Skipworth), arrives on the scene.
John Hewer demonstrated superb timing and frenetic energy as Charley's aunt and dressed all in black, his disdainful looks became somewhat reminiscent of Queen Victoria.
Humour does not always survive the passage of time but in the hands of this cast, Charley's Aunt has retained its appeal.
Trevor Ekins, GRIMSBY TELEGRAPH, 2nd May 2009


CELLAR'S MARKET AT THE RIVERHEAD
Bad timing, really. News broke over the weekend of the perverted Austrian who imprisoned his 17-year-old daughter in a cellar for 24 years, raping her on a regular basis and fathering seven children. Horrific stuff, indeed. Had the story broken a week earlier, we might have had a full house in the main auditorium for Hambledon’s latest offering, THE COLLECTOR. The full house it really merited.
Based on the John Fowles novel of the same name, Mark Healy’s adaptation chilled the Riverhead audience with its dank tale of the abduction and imprisonment of Miranda (Rachael Hewer) by the geeky but deranged obsessive Clegg (Laurence Brown). Sexy and vivacious, the London art student has been stalked for weeks by the Lottery winner until he makes his move with a dodgy story about a puppy and the aid of a little chloroform. Virtually all the action unfolds within the confines of a cellar of a remote cottage.
There are no easy roles in this production. It’s a two-hander and both Rachael Hewer and Laurence Brown have to be at the top of their game. Fortunately, they are.
From our first sighting of the pop-eyed Clegg, his body hinting at a deformity caused by repression rather than injury, we know we have no ordinary Lottery winner here. And it’s a demanding physicality Clegg has to sustain for a full hour and a half. Like Miranda, he’s barely offstage for more than a few seconds; there’s no respite. His vocal delivery, similarly – perfect diction in a clipped, mechanical style, like the clacking of an antique typewriter – effectively informs the audience what an emotionally stunted wacko we’re dealing with.
He’s a collector of butterflies, captured, pinned, meticulously labelled and displayed and in Miranda he has made a significant addition to his collection. Rachael Hewer plays this difficult role with subtlety and intelligence, laying out the range of physical and psychological stages an abductee must pass through: rage, subterfuge, 'befriending' the captor, loss of hope.
It is very much to the director’s credit (Jonathan Rigby) that what was very much a novel and film (Terence Stamp and Samantha Eggar) of the 1960s was transformed into a performance wholly relevant to the world we inhabit today. It was pacy and compelling. In large part, this was due to Rigby’s prudent staging choices which allowed for continuous action between scenes and the lack of an intrusive stage crew – the cast made swift, discreet adjustments of set and properties, ensuring the tension never flagged.
Unchained superlatives, then, for a brave choice by this vibrant local company and the excellent support afforded by the Riverhead.
Rick Dring, LOUTH LEADER 30 April 2008


HAUNTING PLAY TAKES YOU TO A DARK PLACE
It's not often that a play actually has me on the edge of my seat in anticipation. But The Collector, a thriller by Hambledon Productions at Louth's Riverhead Theatre, did just that.
The play tells the story of Frederick, a lonely butterfly collector who decides to 'collect' an art student called Miranda, whom he has been stalking for some time. The entire play is based in the cellar of Frederick's Suffolk home, where he keeps Miranda (played by Rachael Hewer) locked up.
The play was a raw and uncensored depiction of John Fowles' well-known novel - with colourful language to boot. Frederick (played by Laurence Brown) took on the kind of calm-crazy that stays in your head long after the play was over. I honestly found it hard to look directly at him on stage for fear he would see me! Meanwhile, Miranda's growing despair infiltrated the audience, as you watch her deterioration from a fighter to a defeated soul.
The simple set cleverly used lighting to stand for the outside world and, ultimately, hope when, every so often, Miranda gets a glimpse of daylight. Other aspects were a bit too realistic for my liking though. Perhaps I'm just squeamish, but I don't need to see someone spitting out brown water to imagine vomiting.
The acting was faultless though. The characters were three-dimensional and the monologues to the audience were haunting and insightful.
A particularly chilling moment came when Frederick told the audience he never intended to release her after a month - and pulls a bottle of chloroform from his pocket. The scene that follows was the highlight of the show for me. The struggle between Miranda and Frederick as he goes to kill her was as fraught and exciting as a Hollywood-esque climax.
Despite this, it ends on a creepy cliff-hanger as a projection screen shows a new girl, a school pupil.
Louise Eccles, GRIMSBY TELEGRAPH 29 April 2008


THE COLLECTOR
* * * * FOUR STARS * * * *
This play is a dramatisation of a novel written by John Fowles in the early 1960s, an author later better known for THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN.
Hambledon Productions will shortly be presenting the play in London but, in a dry run, they have opted to stage their premiere in Louth. It features Rachael Hewer and Laurence Brown under the direction of Jonathan Rigby who himself is no stranger to the West End stage.
Frederick Clegg is one of those insignificant little men who go through life largely unnoticed and tend to live within their own insular world, often developing passionate but obscure interests. In this instance, he is a collector of butterflies but harbours an unhealthy attraction for Miranda, a young art student with whom he becomes obsessed, but from a distance, for he recognises that she is beyond his reach. That is, until a Lottery win provides him with the opportunity to indulge in his fantasy, and he abducts Miranda and imprisons her in the cellar of a remote country house that he is now able to afford.
We, the audience, alternate between being spectators looking in on this incarceration over a period of two months or so, and representing the lens of a camera into which Clegg delivers his monologues, explaining and justifying his actions. It is a gripping story and we follow the changing relationship between these two individuals; one moment the atmosphere is tense and threatening and the next they are behaving as though they are an old married couple, and yet the rawness of their insecurities is never far from the surface. This may be drama but of course we know it’s not that removed from the real world and, as in life, sadly there is a disturbing outcome.
This could so easily have gone wrong. To stage a play that is wholly dependent upon the portrayal of just two characters places great demands upon the actors. They must be in harmony and perform as an extension of each other whilst bringing their characters to life in such a way that we are seduced into forgetting that they are acting. In this, Rachael and Laurence deserve congratulations for their partnership on stage was a triumph and they should be proud of their achievement. Rachael introduced us to the full range of Miranda’s emotions, from terror to despair and anger to fleeting moments of hope. Meanwhile, Laurence exposed us to Frederick’s innocence and naïveté whilst also taking us to the deeper dark recesses of his mind.
THE COLLECTOR is a serious play that deals with a difficult subject, although there are occasional bursts of humour. Entertainment is a broad church and, from time to time, this should include drama that provokes and prompts us to engage our brains and think. I commend Hambledon Productions for introducing something to us that does exactly that.
Trevor Ekins, COMPASS FM 25 April 2008