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Theatr Fach

LIVELY Bank Holiday entertainment was supplied by four performances (plus one at the Dragon Theatre, Barmouth) of ‘Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime’, a comedy developed by Constance Cox from an Oscar Wilde short story.

Lord Arthur Savile is told by a ‘cheiromantist’ (palm-reader) that he is destined to commit a murder.

Comic action is driven by the fact that Lord Arthur feels obliged to carry out the deed before marriage to his beloved Sybil can take place, and his vain attempts at enacting this.

Uttered by Jacki Thompson as Sybil this line achieved its full effect, reflecting the firm grasp throughout by director Ruth Nicholls (who also played Lord Arthur’s aunt Lady Windermere) of that key to comic success, the seriousness with which characters take themselves.

The ‘Wooster-Jeeves’ dynamic between Lord Arthur (Richard Withers ) and his somewhat sharper butler Baines (Ifor Davies) , exemplified this. At a more farcical extreme the anarchist and explosives (in)expert Herr Winkelkopf (Julian Jones) displayed such intensity that he threatened to steal each scene he was in as well as destroy the set.

A fine creation by Ian Macer-Wright, who also handled light and sound with aplomb.

A note of suave menace was added by the imposing Lindsay Hodges as cheiromantist Mr Podgers.

Sue Barnes as Nellie the maid ‘knew her place’; aristocratic cameos completed the cast, all of them formidable (and impressively costumed) - Sybil’s mother Lady Julia (Christine Jones), and Lord Arthur’s aunt Windermere and uncle the Dean of Paddington (Vaughan Davies), not forgetting his high-living great-aunt Lady Clementina (Lesley Holland) who relished to the full telling her great-nephew - “I’m glad you’re such a good boy, Arthur, but, oh, my dear, what you’re missing”.

That thought could be echoed for all those who missed this show. Live theatre at its best really can feel uniquely therapeutic.

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