REVIEW - Manchester Evening News - November 1995

ONE of the main functions of London pub theatre is to act as a test-bed for new writing. But, in launching itself earlier this autumn with a string of new plays, Manchester's Rocket pub Theatre Company may have been trying for too ambitious a lift-off. This new venue - which backers Tetley hope will help establish a thriving pub theatre scene in Manchester - has potential. The room, in the basement of this Albert Square hostelry, is highly suitable for the purpose, even down to the hard benches no self-respecting fringe joint would be complete without.

And this time, with two Tom Stoppard quirky comedies - both funny, both highly approachable and enjoyable and in decent and entertaining productions - there should be nothing to frighten the punters.

After Magritte is early, 1970 Stoppard, a surreal comedy of improbable domestic juxtapositions in a suburban household, where a ballroom dancing couple prepare for a night out and the bloke's Mother toots on the tuba. Matters become even sillier with the entrance of Insp. Foot and Pc Holmes and their suspicions that the household is involved in a dastardly crime known as The Crippled Minstrel Caper. It is a very light piece that partly depends on very sharp timing, which it didn't quite have at last night's preview but will no doubt gather over the next few performances. The Real Inspector Hound - Stoppard's rather more substantial and elaborate skit on Agatha Christie country house-style murder mysteries, follows and is the more assured production.

Theatre critics Birdboot (Martin Harris, also company founder and director) and Moon (Richard Howell Jones) watch the who-dun-wot unfold from their seats at the bar.

The former is mostly interested in getting the leading lady off stage and into bed, while the latter - who is only the second string critic of his journal - is fixated with speculation about whether he will ever succeed to the number one spot.

As Stoppard's comic roller-coaster gathers speed, as the fog closes in and a madman is loose on the moor; the critics become caught up in the on-stage action, with tragi-comic results. The whole company offer amusing tongue-in-cheek cameos, with the ladies - Julie Calvert as the maid and Alison Clark and Emma Kanis as the two objects of Birdboot's attentions - forming a particularly formidable trio.
Until November 25. Advance tickets from the Library Theatre Box office, or pay at the door.

REVIEW - City Life - November 1995

Recent readers of these pages might recall one or two harsh words directed at Rocket Theatre Company, Manchester's latest venture into pub theatre. Predictions of doom jostled with questions as to whether the company had a clue about the special demands pub theatre places on both audience and performers. Their new show however, goes some way towards re-assuring tentative punters that pub theatre needn't be synonymous with crushing boredom or embarrassment. A double-bill of vintage Tom Stoppard, consisting of After Magritte and The Real Inspector Hound (The Square Albert to 25 November) places the company on surer ground than their previous productions of untested new plays, and for the most part it pays off.

After Magritte admittedly, is something of a chore, being a rather lumpen attempt to mime the mundanities of suburban life for surreal humour. Its terrible jokes and smug clever-cleverness provide fuel for the legions of Stoppard detractors, and the cast seem to struggle even harder than the audience. Mercifully it's short, and the next offering, Hound, is very much the main event of the evening. It's a funny and ingenious take on the creaky country house whodunnit genre, with two aloof theatre critics swapping notes on who dun what, before becoming murderously embroiled in the action themselves.

Director Martin Harris cleverly exploits the pub space, with the critics (one of them impressively played by Harris himself) shifting from snobbish barflies to active participants. The 'real' actors are good too, playing the gallery of Agatha Christie-style types with a knowing, but not too knowing, twinkle, and the evening (at least the Hound portion) goes down rather agreeably with a couple of pints.

7th - 25th November 1995 - The Square Albert Pub, Manchester. Directed by Martin Harris. Cast (After Magritte): Antony Bessick / Denton Brown / Julie Calvert / Alison Clark / Brian Sargent. (The Real Inspector Hound): Antony Bessick / Denton Brown / Julie Calvert / Alison Clark / Martin Harris / Richard Howell-Jones / Emma Kanis / Brian Sargent.