Departures

 HAVING spent rather longer than expected in a foreign airport departure lounge last weekend, due to a delayed flight back to Gatwick, there were certain aspects of this intriguing bitter sweet comedy with which I could most certainly identify.

The difference in my case was that the lounge was exceedingly crowded, whereas in this instance every one of the ten departure lounges featured was remarkably free of other passengers – and this perhaps caused what I felt was the production’s only problem. To have filled the stage with additional ‘passengers’ would have distracted the audience from those they should have been concentrating on, yet the stage seemed very empty and I found myself watching the walls rather too much – which was no reflection on the performers’ ability to hold an audience, simply that there was a lot of wall to look at. This though was clearly a female thing, as several men I spoke to during the interval failed to notice the walls at all and could only talk about the long and shapely legs of one of the characters…

John Godber’s play, which centres on two business executives who spend much of their time flying around Europe, focuses not only on airline departures but also those of a personal nature. This production, which is directed by Chaz Davenport, took a little time to pick up speed on opening night but soon found its feet and developed into a highly enjoyable evening that I wouldn’t have wanted to miss. I just have one small criticism though - hot coffee, particularly in a cardboard cup, isn’t terribly easy to carry, nor to drink if you haven’t taken off the lid, yet some characters seemed to manage both with ease. But I digress.

There are some absolutely first-rate performances. Steve Hawker seems to have cornered the market in angst-ridden characters, and his portrayal of Jim, who can fly only when dosed up with tranquillisers and brandy, is superb. Ryan Gregg, playing his womanising business partner Steve, is also an extremely watchable and natural actor, and his characterisation is also spot-on.

Kimberley Scott plays Zoe, a young graduate who works briefly for the pair and turns their lives upside down. She is eye candy for them and, it seemed, for the men in the audience – yes, she’s the one with the legs (and the looks), but she is also an extremely talented actress.

Lotte Fletcher-Jonk has not been part of the local theatre scene for very long, having moved here from elsewhere, but she has quickly shown herself to be one of our most accomplished performers. Her portrayal of Claire, Jim’s wife, is nothing short of brilliant as she doesn’t so much act a part as live it, using her whole body to express her emotions. In the scene where she begins to fall apart I could easily have believed it was for real, and I was almost sobbing with her.

Highly recommended – catch it if you can.