Two is enough

Last week, at lunch, Dawn asked me if I ever missed theatre. Obviously there are times, I told her but generally, no. Then we go out and see something like the play we saw tonight and I really, really miss it.

I’d heard about the production at Talking News on Thursday and immediately jumped onto the website and bought a couple of tickets, knowing Mirinda would love it. It was a lovely end to a cold and miserable Sunday.

It seems that spring and summer are gone and we’re back to hygge territory. The temperature has sunk and the blue sky has gone somewhere else. The cold I can certainly attest to because I was outside in it for most of the day. I was up the back building Mirinda’s tool shed, my fingers freezing, my nose numb. It wasn’t the most pleasant of jobs but, eventually, the pile of panels and bits and pieces looked like this:

This was after I’d managed to make a new batch of sauerkraut using the whey from yesterday and quite a bit of cabbage squishing muscle. It looked excellent and hopefully, in a couple of days, will be as delicious as the last batch.

We eventually sat down to a linner of leftover moussaka and salad before getting ready and getting Max to take us up to Odiham.

I had no idea there was a venue in Odiham. We’ve been going into the town for many, many years but, obviously, have missed the Cross Barn. And it’s not like it’s new. It’s the oldest brick barn in Hampshire and was built in 1532. It is amazing.

Of course, because we didn’t know exactly where it was and because I always think it takes twice as long as it does to get to Odiham, we were ages early so we managed to park the car in the incredibly confusing parking area, then wandered up to what used to be Next Door at the George but is now the Red Lion.

We had a pre-theatre drink while remembering how the place used to look when we used to come up almost every Sunday. It has changed a bit with the bar coming forward and the tables changing. Also the predominantly New Zealand staff has been replaced with one of Schumanians.

We think the changes are because Bel and the Dragon has taken a lot of dining patrons away so the Red Lion has converted back to more of a pub serving food than the other way around. Still, the wine and the beer are still excellent.

But it was soon time to take our seats inside the Cross Barn to witness a more than the usual hilarious The Importance of Being Earnest.

Now, I needn’t bother reminding anyone reading this that we are very acquainted with Earnest. Apart from seeing numerous productions we also produced a few of our own and I played Jack in all of them. And, while we always love to see new productions, this one was a bit special. The reason for that was because it has only two actors and they play all of the parts.

Of course, such an enterprise could be doomed to abject failure (and if you’d taken note of the faces of the three teenagers near the back you’d think it was the most boring thing ever performed) but not in this case. Split Second Productions’ Earnest was incredibly fast paced and hilarious.

Alex Hooper (Jack, Cecily, Chasuble and Lady B) and Jack Coleby (Algy, Gwendolyn, Prism and Lacy B) were fantastic. Their pace and timing were excellent. We were particularly taken with Coleby’s Algy. And then we were presented with Hooper’s Cecily. It was as if Lauren had suddenly appeared on stage. I have no idea who Hooper used as his inspiration for Cecily but his young girl was superb. He had most of the audience in fits. (I say most because of the three sullen youths, as previously mentioned.)

The fast paced second act was truly something to be completely enjoyed with absolute abandon as the pair switched hats and character faster than a train to Worthing. The hats were remarkable.

The biggest and brightest star in this production was the direction. While the actors delivered the already wonderful dialogue with great skill, timing and millinery, without the incredibly fast paced direction, it could so easily have failed. For that we had two directors to be grateful for: Jaq Bessell and Bryan Hodgson. How two people direct play I have no idea but whatever their secret, it works like a charm.

The production is touring (this was the second performance) and playing in some amazing venues. So, if anyone reading this is in Berkeley, Bishop’s Cleeve, Gloucester, Chippenham, Tetbury, Salisbury, Bristol, Glastonbury, Stroud, Cheltenham, Bath, Berkhamsted, Chelmsford, Newmarket, Leicester or Oxford from now until June 3, do yourself a favour and get a ticket. Unless you’re sour faced teenager, you’ll totally love this Earnest.

Details and dates and everything else you need to know are here: Split Second Producions website.

I should add that I have nothing to do with any of them…I just LOVED it.

2021 UPDATE: I had to remove the above website as it now points to something quite different. If you’re lucky it will download a bunch of crap you really don’t want on your computer. If you’re unlucky, you’ll never use your computer again. If you have a Facebook account, you might be able to find Split Second on there.