Review of Trial By Laughter at Milton Keynes Theatre, Milton Keynes

Private Eye's Ian Hislop and writing partner Nick Newman once again reunite after their hit The Wipers Times successfully transferred from TV to stage. This time they take their own Radio 4 play, Trial by Laughter, and transfer it into a remarkably slick stage play.

William Hone was, conveniently, the Ian Hislop of 1817, a satirist charged with libel (and a little added blasphemy), and charged and subjected to three trials in three days. His story told here in a witty, but occasionally slightly heavy way is the cornerstone for a lot of the now free press we see in this country. Not that this has stopped Mr Hislop himself from finding himself in the dock countless times of course.

Trial By Laughter is a curious piece which has more successful moments than failures. It does take a while to get going, despite an opening scene featuring the brilliant Jeremy Lloyd as Prince Regent, a living and breathing caricature on stage himself, portly and looking every bit the drawn work of cartoonist Cruikshank. He and Helena Antoniou as Lady Hertford provide the buoyant and larger than life humour of the play, the physical material, while the rest, is more delivered through speech. They are the perfect antithesis in comedy style presented here.

As the man of the hour, William Hone, Joseph Prowen gives a very slick performance, maybe at times too much so, its a little too perfect, not allowing the character to come out into someone you can actually like enough to justify supporting his plight. This is at odds with a much better Peter Losasso as Cruickshank, he is much more relaxed in his delivery, making the character much more enthusiastic and earnest, and easily appeals to the audience more. His is the best performance in the show.

Elsewhere there is a brilliant mix of turns from Dan Mersh, who as both Hone's drinking buddy Hazlitt, and the judge, Ellenborough, seeking to send him down, has some of the quickest switches of character, in a play that thrives on doubling or more up, with little time in between other than to grab a different coat.

Dora Schweitzer set provides a slightly cartoonish depiction of a royal court and courtroom backdrop that easily switches between venues, with more than a little help from Matt Leventhall's lighting, especially with the neat prison scenes. The star of the set though is an animated clock, which has a character all of its own, creating time passing and spinning back when the story brings a flashback to the fore. It's a brilliant concept and enhances the show greatly.

There is indeed a lot of great theatre set pieces here including swift set changes and a couple that very much form part of the story, and also adding clever comedy as a scene, for instance, is bridged by a thieving servant.

The curiosity of locational audio of the jury and those in the gallery of the court is a curious one, which, where it is relevant to the proceedings works, however, at times it can also feel like a laughter track, telling us, as a modern audience where to fully get the jokes, especially if they are more of their time. It just about works without being an uncomfortable addition, and is certainly technically impressive.

A very nice surprise from the show also is the inclusion of a few songs into proceedings and neat dance numbers, all very period in style, nicely performed and they work to break up the occasional worthy dialogue.

Director Caroline Leslie keeps the piece flowing with an eye to a good pace, which the set allows superbly, and while Hislop and Newman's script occasionally heads in the direction of being too clever for its own good, it always has a proper laugh or vulgar joke on the way to stop it becoming tiresome in its worthiness. Certainly an entertaining piece of theatre, telling a pivotal piece of British legal history.

Well staged and light enough to always entertain despite telling its tale in quite a stale way sometimes.
⭐⭐⭐⭐

Performance reviewed: Monday 25th February 2019 at Milton Keynes Theatre, Milton Keynes.

Trial by Laughter runs at Milton Keynes Theatre until Saturday 2nd March 2019 before continuing its tour. Details at https://britishtheatre.com/trial-by-laughter-tour/

Further details about Milton Keynes Theatre can be found at http://www.atgtickets.com/venues/milton-keynes-theatre/

Photos: Philip Tull

Review of Of Mice And Men at Royal & Derngate (Royal), Northampton

Other than, randomly, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The War of the Worlds , John Steinbeck's classic Of Mice and Men is perhaps one of the most familiar of stories to me. I have seen it several times before, and while at school, we studied it, and dissected it like the work of Mr Shakespeare, but with Steinbeck, I got out the other side still liking it. This brand new version from Selladoor Productions, which opened in Canterbury last week, brings a by-the-book presentation of the trials of George and his slow, but incredibly strong friend, Lennie, to the stage. Perhaps, this is its first issue blocking a huge success from this production, in that it rarely does anything brave or different. It's clearly been expertly cast visually, with the hulking form of Matthew Wynn as Lennie, and the diminutive (in comparison) Richard Keightley and Kamran Darabi-Ford as George and Curley respectively. Darabi-Ford especially perfect in his tremendously awkward scenes wit...

Review of Northern Ballet - The Great Gatsby at Milton Keynes Theatre

This production of The Great Gatsby performed by Northern Ballet was my fifth encounter at the theatre of a full ballet production and as before, I happily share my review of the show with nearly zero knowledge of-the-art form and more of a casual theatre-goer. You could say that this is a poor direction to come in on a review, but I would say that casual audience are the ones to review this for. Over the years, Northern Ballet has set quite a high benchmark for ballet productions, and any audience member who is worth their salt as a ballet fan would no doubt have tickets for this new touring version of the 2013 version of The Great Gatsby , lovingly created by David Nixon OBE. So much is Nixon part of the very fabric of this show, that he not only provides the choreography and direction but also the initial scenario and costume design (assisted by Julie Anderson). So, discounting those ballet fans already sitting in the audience, what does this offer for the more casual theatre-goer ...

Review of Flash Festival 2016: Red Inquisition by Memoir Theatre at Castle Hill URC

Red Inquisition from Memoir Theatre evolves from a theatre groups creation of a play based on the 1947 Hollywood blacklist and McCarthyism So that I can get it out the way early on and take this review in a more upbeat direction that Red Inquisition deserves, I am going to get a real bugbear done first. There was a huge negative for me from this production and one that I ended up getting negative vibes from. For me there was far too much video and audio footage in this production. Much of it was while excellently researched, surplus to requirements. The were a couple of occasions especially where we saw material repeated on screen that had already been performed. The show did not need this and for me theatre is not about watching a screen in any case, its about seeing performances. This however does need to be taken as a positive as what I am simply saying is that I wanted more acting from the trio of Daniel Hadjivarnava, Ciara Goldsberry and Jaryd Headley as they work excellently ...

A Small Mind At The Theatre

Search This Blog