BEST MEN AND BETWEEN WOMEN
Hen and Chickens
By TOM FOOT

THERE is a scene in the Simpsons cartoon when a boring neighbour stops Homer in the street. Homer’s brain takes evasive action floating right out of his head in protest, only to return when his neighbour leaves.
A similar sense of mindlessness took over during Best Men and Between Women – two short plays about a fraught build up to a wedding.
Considering the plays are about a hen night and a bunch of cowardly blokes who fear commitment, the Hen and Chickens venue was more than appropriate.
The same story is told from two perspectives – first the stags then hens.
Men fight and drink beer. Women prattle and paint their faces. But the stereotyping ends there.
Both sets of relationships hang by a thread, just about held together by white lies and duplicity. Insecurity is rife. In Best Men, Tom (Alex McSweeney) feels left out. He is not chosen as best man and his two mates are going into business together. He sets in motion an elaborate plan to split them up.
But Alex (Adam Meggido) and Pete (Jack Murray) think Tom is just over-analysing their relationship.
We probably all know someone like this – a mate who thinks they’re Jerry Springer but is really the one most in need of psychotherapy.
In Between Women a woman resists telling her best friend about a drunken snog she enjoyed with her soon to be husband.
The friends stay friends – but for how long?
The play argues that the Homer approach is best – ignorance is bliss.
Best Men and Between Women, as the flyer states, is a “story of men and women doing things.” To look too closely into it would be to miss the point – Doh!
With brain waiting patiently downstairs in the bar, it became easy to switch off, sit back and enjoy some of witty aspects of the script.
But there wasn’t much to keep me interested.
All the actors overcame first night nerves, putting in a convincing collective performance especially Laura Patch as a very dippy Vikki.

Until August 14
020 7704 2001

What are they still fighting for?

JUSTICE
Old Red Lion
By MAIRI MACDONALD

CHRISTOPHER Hanvey grew up in Northern Ireland with a generation that that has known sectarian violence all through their lives.
This play has an unromantic, updated account of the situation. The IRA are out of the picture in Hanvey’s Justice, set in the Loyalist underbelly of Portadown, where the fight for God and Ulster has given way to a war fuelled by drugs and money.
With faith in a cause long gone, it is no wonder the soldiers of Ulster get confused about what they are fighting for.
Hanvey himself plays the central character Chris Carson who is coming to terms with the fact that loyalty is as irrelevant as the political murals on the walls of the working class districts he walks past everyday.
Determinately anti-drugs, devoted to the province and his girlfriend, Carson sees himself as the good guy wrestling with the truth that everyone has blood on their hands.
The play opens with the disturbing image of a man writhing on stage, bloodied and dying with a Boots bag tied unceremoniously over his head as tinny Christmas songs blast out. The superficial goodwill of Christmas is a good backdrop for the atmosphere of falsities and double-dealing.
The bleakness gives rise to black humour with the female characters providing much of the light relief amid the violence.
No one represents the futility of the fighting more than John Robinson (Chris Lehec) whose powerlessness against the blackmail and corruption around him leads to tragedy.
Strong performances by Hanvey and Stevie Davidson, who plays repugnant pimp Stevie, stand out but some faltering over their Ulster accents by other cast members does nothing to bring down the overall effect of this excellent and poignant performance.

Until August 20
020 7837 7816

Exemplary fringe show with laughs and emotion

CRIMES OF THE HEART
Etcetera Theatre
by CHARLOTTE CHAMBERS

SEX, sex, sex – the oldest trick to get your attention. Not completely contrived though, as writer Beth Henley does ask some interesting questions about female sexuality.
Crimes of the Heart is exactly what fringe theatre should be about – actors having fun – not gloomy, issue-driven plays that leave the audience glum.
Henley sets her 1981 play in her hometown in Mississippi. In 1981 it won the Pulitzer Prize and an Oscar nomination for the screenplay of the film starring Jessica Lange and Diane Keaton.
Undergraduates put on the show and their enthusiasm was refreshing and the audience showered them with laughs.
The three sisters, Lenny (Polly Smith), Meg (Charlotte McKinney), and Babe (Katy Dean) could not be faulted. Smith was particularly impressive – that girl is going places.
You care about the sisters and when one tries to hang herself – as her “momma” had done along with the family cat – a tangible air of relief rose from the audience when the rope broke.
The empowering element of the play, for females in the audience at least, is the support the sisters offer each other.
The irony of the opening and closing song, Tammy Wynette’s Stand By Your Man, certainly wasn’t lost.
There is also a Balzac play showing at the Etcetera and if you’ve bought a bumper pack of dry roasted, I’m sure it would be worth munching through the two.

Until August 14
020 7482 4857

CLICK HERE FOR THEATRE LISTINGS