Lace Market Theatre directors Linda Croston and Alison Hope have created a stylish and well- executed observation based social drama on the main stage this week from John Godber and Jane Thornton’s revitalised (restirrred) script. Linda Croston’s professional looking Shakers bar set design works a treat. The silver and black chairs loaned from the nearby Cross Keys pub are a perfect fit.
Although billed as a comedy – and there are some laughs to be had, particularly in the second act where it scores highest in the way of chuckles, in this reviewer’s point of view, it is in the slick dramatic choreography throughout and the four actors abilities to convince not only as serving girls Carol (Rosie Poesl), Adele (Rosie Randall), Nicky (Lucie Conroy) and Mel (Clare Choubey) but as various other characters throughout. Their focus on invisible characters is also convincingly well done.
Randall is the first to speak directly to the audience in this production and her physical confidence and vocal clarity are reassuring in this iteration and a benchmark for the quality of the production. All of the four actors know exactly what they are doing and when they should be doing it and essentially make a very exacting acting job look easy. The show’s comedy comes mainly from the cast’s commendable spot on comic timing and their body and facial reactions to unfolding situations, not necessarily from John Godber and Jane Thornton’s wit which can seem a bit dated at times.
Conroy, Poesl, Randall and Choubey are particularly brilliant at depicting the allegedly good-looking but socially shallow groups of young men that drunkenly bluster into the Shakers bar groomed to the teeth in the fashions and smells of the 1990s in search of more booze and a possible pissed up grope of a waitress’ bottom. The young men laughing (braying) at nothing definitely amuses me as I live next to a pub and hear that and loud voices all the time. They also excel at ‘being’ a group of supermarket checkout girls preparing for and going out on the lash to celebrate a work mate’s 21st Birthday. These are just two groups and individuals the Shakers girls encounter in their cocktail bar lives and virtually all of the re-enactments are done without any props which helps considerably with the flow of the piece. Matt Allcock creates a faultless soundscape and Simon Carter’s creative lighting impresses.
Not every story in Shakers Restirred is geared up and delivered to amuse and, typical of playwrights Godber and Thornton, they craft their stage text to include darker personal revelations of the cocktail bar staff’s lives as well as their ambitions and frustrations. Each character is given a spot lit monologue and all are finely acted and performed honestly and naturalistically by the cast. In what is more than an extended Happy Hour of stage traffic these heartfelt monologues, the upbeat acting energies and the classy direction are what I shall carry away with me into the night after another enjoyable visit to Nottingham’s The Lace Market Theatre.
Shakers Restirred runs until Saturday 20th Jan 2024
