REVIEW - The Mancunion - 19th February 1996

THE SQUARE ALBERT was once used to store bodies prior to burial in the days of public hanging, and although there were no visible remnants of this gruesome history, these plays had something unusually deathly about them.

Herb Greer's play about the strange and somewhat disturbing confrontation between a BBC script reader and an unknown playwright began the evening in humble style. A small cast, a small stage, and an even smaller audience set the scene for the world premiere of this play. It was not a glamorous affair.

Miles, played by the convincing Robin Simpson, sat at his desk among piles of scripts, all ready for the bin. It was a normal tedious day until the arrival of Boo (Ian Ralph) who had sent in a play that had been rejected, came armed with a knife for some sort of revenge. After reducing Miles to a tearful wreck with threats of death, a confusing conversation of 'existing' ensued. It was all rather peculiar, especially when Boo revealed that he did not write the play at all. With Boo looking more like a boxer than a playwright and Miles talking of Oxford days in an unconvincing plummy accent, all in all the performance and the play were mediocre, but entertaining.

Joe Orton's play, on the other hand, showed more substantial qualities in both plot and performance. Set in a council house in working class Britain, and having as it's central character the controversial and homosexual Wilson, The Ruffian on the Stair - Orton's first play, written in 1963 - can perhaps be viewed autobiographically. A murderer, an ex-prostitute, and a psychopath share the house, and the action culminates in Wilson's dead body lying on the kitchen floor. Mark Rose's portrayal of Wilson, a lunatic, was rather superficial, and again, the actors had problems with accents.

On leaving the theatre, the presence of death lingered. Resources were small, and although the acting was not always wholly believable, the lighting, music and direction of Reeve and Harris made for an enjoyable evening.

REVIEW - Club and Pub News - 23rd February 1996

The Rocket Theatre Company continue their season of pub theatre with a double bill of murder, mystery and suspense. That Other Thing On My Mind is a play by local playwright Herb Greer, about a scriptwriter who confronts his most hated enemy - the script-reader. What follows is at times extremely funny, in particular the script-reader's heartfelt outbursts about the amount of terrible material he has to read. However, the play is let down somewhat by what I felt was a rather poor ending.

The Ruffian on the Stair is a far superior offering - a black comedy by Joe Orton, about an almost happy couple living in almost happiness, whose semblance of normality is wrecked when a young man turns up on their doorstep asking to rent a room. They don't have a spare room, but the stranger seems determined to stay, and as events unroll it soon becomes evident why.

Both the plays were competently performed, with a couple of actors appearing in both and effortlessly switching from one character to the next. The night I went was rather poorly attended, but did not deserve to be - get out there and go and check it out. It's well worth the effort.

This double bill is playing at the Square Albert until Feb 24th and is followed by Two, starting Feb 27th.

6th - 24th February 1996 - The Square Albert Pub, Manchester. Directed by Martin Reeve (That Other Thing On My Mind) and Martin Harris (The Ruffian On The Stair). Cast: Susanna Meese / Ian Ralph / Robin Simpson / Robert and George the goldfish!