PERFORMANCE & COMEDY

Rondo Theatre, Bath (Thur 3 Nov)

THEATRE This new one from Sheffield's Reform Theatre is a welcome visitor to the intimate confines of the ever-lovely Rondo. As with last year’s brilliant burglars' comedy 'Thick as Thieves', Reform's latest explores, John Godber-style, the life and problems of working-class folk, while avoiding too much middle-class patronising. Co-incidentally, it also involves a break-in.

Jim and Lucy, married for 41 years, feel a bit trapped. She is kept indoors by her unaccountable agoraphobia, he by the modern world and what he sees as the decline of life on their estate nowadays. In the background is a family tragedy that is gradually revealed. Then a crisis in their life is precipitated by the intrusion of a local scally into their house; this lets Jim vent his Daily Mail opinions of drug-addled modern youth to the full, while taking vengeance on the lad for all his frustrations with the world and with his own life. Long-suffering Lucy, representing the Guardian-reading viewpoint, decides to see the possibility that the foul-mouthed abusive intruder might be suffering on his own account, and things start to take an unexpected shift.

This is a fast-paced, energetic piece, with plenty of humour that lets the social comment work without being preachy. And the performances of the three protagonists do it full justice, particularly in the marital bickering matches, and in the progress of their would-be burglar from unfocused rage to a more honest admission of pain. Lively, funny, thought-provoking and humane theatre. (John Christopher Wood)

Copyright John Christopher Wood 2011