The current play at the Guild Theatre is E.M.Forster’s WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD with a stage adaptation by Elizabeth Hart.
The opening scene of WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD sees a surprising postcard arrive from Italy signed by ‘half brother’ Vittorio. Irma, a little girl of eight, is very surprised as she has no knowledge of having a baby step brother. The grandmother Mrs Herriton has a serious talk to Irma as Uncle Phil breezes into the salon ‘so the cat’s out of the bag’. The concept of secrecy being bad for the soul is explored by Forster. The grandmother declares that an Italian baby is a Papist and not christened like an English baby. Miss Caroline Abbott is ushered into the room by Irma who announces her in a polished way like she is reading out an orator’s calling card.
Mrs Herriton provides Miss Caroline Abbott with staunch advice that there is an English restaurant Dieppe where you can enjoy true English food. However the audience later realises that Caroline’s true destination is Italy not France. Miss Abbott is adamant that she wants to adopt the child because she wants to make amends for not supporting the mother Lilia who died in childbirth and had written letters asking for help for marital and cultural roles.
Mrs Herriton accuses Caroline of sanctimonious meddling that undermines and usurps our class mores. After Caroline leaves Mrs Herriton decides that she will seek custody of the baby herself and she sends her son Philip and her daughter Harriet on a mission to Italy to bring back the baby.
The show is seamlessly directed by Jim Searle and he wins evocative performances from the cast.
Yolande Regueira plays the snobbish, authoritative matriarch Mrs Herriton. Regueira conveyed her air of superiority through her mannerisms. Regueira also plays Perfetta ,a distant cousin to Gino, who is his rather reluctant housekeeper and nanny to the baby.
Lani Crooks plays her uptight, frosty, manipulative daughter Harriet in a forceful performance.
Tye Barnes plays her aimless, phlegmatic son Philip, who is an architect without any clients. He wants to leave Sawston, the small, stilted village mentality and his mother’s dominance, and go to live in London and establish his own identity.
Kassandra Micallef plays the precocious granddaughter, Irma.
Jessica Wake plays the good natured, kind hearted Caroline Abbott who falls for Gino’s charms, ignoring Philip’s overtures.
Jazz Nijjar plays Signora Aletti, the concierge in the Italian hotel whose fond of a good red and is an opera buff.
Douglas Spafford plays the charming, animated, proud Italian father Gino Carella who holds ‘all the cards’ with his baby son in the laundry basket!
Allen Simmons plays a very flamboyant Italian taxi driver.
Jim Searle’s set was a superb background for the cast, setting the Edwardian scene with plant fonts, jardinieres and hinged panels. With the help of theatre techies adding and changing furniture around the set then transformed into the salon of the Hotel Stella d’Italia, Monteriano and then Gino Carella’s house also in Monteriano.
Recommended, WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD is playing the Guild Theatre until Saturday 31 August, 2019.