REVIEW: The Rude Mechanical Theatre Company
By Gary Murray
After touring all summer, the Rudes bring their show Gentle Harry’s Farm to the Little Big Top tent in Helen Garden at the western end of Eastbourne seafront. And a riotous night it is.
This is a revival of a play written by Pete Talbot, first performed in 2011, and with new music by Rowan Talbot.
Set in 1957, friends Agnes and Minnie return from their boarding school, The Gables School for Jolly Nice Girls, for one more summer before they are expected to conform to convention: domestic science college, a husband, children (one of each, of course) and after that the WI (to be ‘useful’).
Their village is apparently fuelled by muffins and they are all set for a “twiffic” summer.
But the adults are worrying that there may be some “desperwit cwiminals” holed up in the woods after a raid on the local bank.
And the animals are worried about being carted off to what is euphemistically known as ‘Primrose Fields‘ – the abattoir!
The criminals turn out to be more Del Boy and Rodney than Ronnie and Reggie and prospective husband Ernest turns out to not be such a good prospect after all.
There’s some fantastically inventive stuff as always with the Rudes; the scenes where the animals are portrayed are hilarious, from Gus the dog to Harris Tottle the lugubrious ram to the cows who look like leather jacketed bikers! Literally flying above everything, is a Greek chorus of magpies.
To pull this off, the Rudes have assembled a cast of highly talented actor/musicians, as always. It’s the key to the success of this company. Holly Cassidy, Artie Godden, Evie James, Rowan Talbot, Matthew Nicholson and Madeleine Hatt all bring energy and inventiveness ‘in abundance‘.
In a post-Brexit Britain, it would be easy to see all of this just as nostalgia for a simpler tim.
But the play gently skewers the conventions of the era, not least because although the men are ostensibly running things for their own benefit, they are hapless twits and it’s the women who actually get things sorted out.
The show is a little too long but it does have a better flow and momentum than previous shows.
That said, it’s a good fun night and well worth seeing.
:: The summer tour finishes tomorrow (Sunday 10 August) with a final show at the Helen Garden, Eastbourne. Tickets here.
:: The reviewer paid for his own ticket.
