Comedy drama (without the drama) was an excellent pick-me-up

MIDDLE Ground Theatre’s production lifted the spirits on a grey January evening and the company has been delighting audiences for the past 37 years.

It has to be said though that this production is not one of its best, it is better suited to the am dram scene in the village halls of the far-flung Scottish Isles.

Written by Margaret May Hobbs, it depicts a fairly amateurish group trying to put on a play in the Scottish Isles. Everything goes wrong that can go wrong, from storage heaters exploding to power cuts at vital points of high drama. Estrid Barton is excellent as Jean Murray, the oh-so-busy busybody of the village. Her timing is perfect and she delivers her lines with excellent speed.

Sadly, she is let down by the rest of the cast who fall into the typical am dram trap of waiting their turn to speak and rarely speaking over each other. Where was their director, Michael Lunney? Should he not have speeded up the funny bits (of which there are many)? The set was too cluttered for the modern theatre-going eye — why so much “stuff” on the fairly small stage?

Perhaps that is the point of the play though — a group of perfectly able actors showing how bad they can be.

For this is supposed to be a play within a play à la Michael Frayn’s Noises Off, but that never failed to have audiences roaring with laughter at every moment of catastrophe. What was funny then is not very funny today.

For example, the constant farting of the character Rupert Valentine Tinglewell, well played by actor Alasdair Baker — that humour went out when the Carry On films came in.

Dial M for Mayhem! is supposed to be a take-off of Dial M for Murder, made famous by Alfred Hitchcock in 1954 but where was the tension, where was the drama?

Billed as a comedy drama, certainly the audience on the opening night sounded happy and the theatre was almost full. Despite my reservations, this was an excellent pick-me-up on a grey January evening — and don’t we all need a pick-me-up right now?

Bridget Fraser