Substance & Shadow Theatre return to the Wardrobe in a play by Midge and Rosie Mullin. Leonard Silver (Nathan Simpson), with a tightly puckered mouth, gormlessly and expectantly open for much of the time, and a whiny midlands accent, sloths around in his dressing gown. His cousin, Melvyn Gould (Midge Mullin), has the finicky aspiration to culture of the uneducated with a corresponding tendency to circumlocution – darts become, ‘the trusty spears of destiny’. Being a darts enthusiast he fancies himself the poet of the oche. The two are reunited after Len’s Mum, Elsie, dies having stipulated that Melvyn should be at the will reading where Len is bequeathed a picture.
The play is set in the era of Betamax. Melvyn is a dab hand at darts whilst Leonard shows himself to be something of an encyclopaedia of general knowledge. So, at Melvyn’s instigation they team up as contestants on the popular TV show of the time, Bullseye. Melvyn produces the goods, but Leonard collapses under the strain and gets all his questions wrong. The same weakness apparently prevented him from seizing the opportunity to carve out a successful music career and he has been masquerading as a touring artist for decades whereas in fact he hardly ever leaves home. He put his problem, stage-fright, down to a traumatic experience in a junior school play when he mistakenly thought the audience was laughing at his having wet himself on stage (in fact, Melvyn points out, they were laughing at something else).
Anyway they are still able to compete for the star prize, a boat, which they proceed to win. Leonard however tows the prize back whilst under the influence and damages the boat, which without consulting Melvyn, he then sells for a fraction of its value. This thwarts Melvyn’s attempt to gain the affections of local lass, Shirley (who we don’t meet) who he was hoping to impress with the newly acquired gin palace. A twist in the tail gives a freeze frame ending.
Unlike some of their previous shows this one seems to lack direction or coherence. Most of the effort seems to have gone into a meandering story and developing funny characters. For some inexplicable reason a lot of the dialogue is delivered out through the fourth wall rather than to each other such that the opportunities for developing the relationship are not fully realized. The one woman in the play, Tracey Norman, who might have spiced things up as Shirley, does little else than strut around in a gold lamé dress holding scene cards.
It’s an interesting subject and era which in this version needs re-focussing with the rubric, ‘less is more’. ★★☆☆☆ Graham Wyles 4th June 2016
