Vivien Wood has come up with a very pleasing production of Ronald Harwood’s well written and crafted play. The setting to QUARTET is a nursing home for retired musicians. We meet three of the inmates – as they call themselves – who are busily discussing what they are going to perform for the upcoming Gala concert celebrating the anniversary of Verdi’s birthday. We soon find out that the trio played together in their prime and they have the CDs to prove it.
In the middle of their discussions they find out the home has received a new inmate. Cecily goes off to find out who it might. She comes back with big news. The news is that it is their old colleague, Jean. They can’t quite believe that things have got so tough for Jean – they thought that she was still a high flyer. Reggie takes the arrival of Jean badly. They were married briefly with Jean walking out on the marriage.
It takes time for the acrimony between Jean and Reggie to settle. It is not long before the four of them are talking about performing the quartet from Rigoletto for the concert. Jean is strongly opposed. She has lost her gift and that’s the end of the story. She doesn’t want to sound like ‘an old car that won’t start’ or ‘cats that have been mating’.
Reg argues with Jean and tells her ‘to hell with the Jean Houghton that used to be’. They should perform the piece as a way of reliving what they once were. The group decide if Jean won’t perform they will go on and do the trio scene from ‘The Barber of Seville’.
Wood wins good performances from her quartet of performers who relish the opportunity of playing such well drawn characters.
Dave Kirkham plays the sensitive, passionate, old fashioned (he wears a bow tie) Reggie. He is very mild mannered except when it comes to a particular nurse who he feels is mistreating him.
Ross Alexander plays the very flirtatious and witty Wilfrid, the most likeable of the characters. For Wilfrid ‘talking dirty excites me/It’s the only thing that does’. He is a always around to lighten the mood. There is fun byplay between Wilfrid and Cecily..
Robyn Williams plays the sweet natured, ditzy Cecily who is the butt of jokes from the others. She is often seen wearing her headphones listening to her beloved classical music. She fancies the gardener which Wilfrid jibes her about. “ You will have to blow the fuse out on your pacemaker’. Cecily has regular episodes where she goes a little weird and thinks everyone is going off to Karachi (she was brought up in India).
Sandra Bass is well cast as the flamboyantly dressed diva Jean. Of the quartet she is the one who is dealing the least well with the difficulties of ageing. There is a scene where she is carrying on in such a diva way that the others just leave the room.
QUARTET is a lengthy play. A good two hours plus interval. The time goes quickly though because the writing and repartee is so good and authentic, Harwood never lets us forget that the quartet are each past their prime, regularly having episodes where they lose the plot. Their expectations have been vastly lowered. As Reg says, ‘all I want is to have a dignified and tranquil senility.’
Vivian Wood and Reg Lunn’s set design is a finely detailed lounge room in the nursing home. There’s a piano, sofa and chairs, french doors leading out, a vase of flowers, and paintings on the wall, especially noted is a painting of a double bass with a stand.
Graham Boswell and Melissa Abraham come up with a good mix of classical music excerpts through the show.
Recommended, QUARTET is playing the Pymble Community Hall, corner Bromley Avenue and Mona Vale Road, Pymble until 27th October, 2018. Performances Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
http://www.pymbleplayers.com.au