The Enfield Haunting - Review

Ambassadors Theatre, London

***

Written by Paul Unwin

Directed by Angus Jackson

Ella Schrey-Yeats

The Enfield Haunting at the Ambassador’s Theatre is Paul Unwin’s dramatisation of a 1970’s turn of events that saw a north London family home beset by an apparent poltergeist.

The play is an ambitious project that appears to have experienced poltergeists of its own in its development from rehearsals through to press night. The programme advertises a running time of 90 minutes (it’s actually a one-act 75) with at least one character listed on the cast list who mysteriously fails to appear in the final on-stage version. Curious indeed…

That being said, the short-ish play is a fair piece of hokum. Catherine Tate leads the line as Peggy, a strong, principled matriarch to two teenage daughters and a younger son and now separated from her abusive husband. David Threlfall plays alongside her as the elderly ghostbuster Maurice, appearing to be a slimy suburban sleazeball but in fact a man with a troubling secret. In a script that’s frequently flawed, both Tate and Threlfall turn in fine performances.

Credit too to Ella Schrey-Yeats as Peggy’s daughter Janet making her West End debut and responsible for a fair few of the evening’s jumps. The rest of the frights could be scarier, with the usually talented Paul Kieve who’s responsible for the show’s illusions delivering mostly low-voltage shocks.

Tate fans will not be disappointed, with the two leads transforming mediocrity into a modestly entertaining evening. Elsewhere, The Enfield Haunting screams out for some paranormal enhancement.

Runs until 2nd March

Photo credit: Marc Brenner

Vardy v Rooney : The Wagatha Christie Trial - Review

Ambassador Theatre, London

****

Adapted by Liv Hennessy

Directed by Lisa Spirling 

Lucy May Barker and Laura Dos Santos

Sporting possibly the longest title to be found in London right now, Vardy v Rooney : The Wagatha Christie Trial is playing in the West End's Ambassador Theatre before heading out to a run of away fixtures across the country. 

Based on the court transcript of Rebekah Vardy’s (spoiler alert) failed libel action against Coleen Rooney, and lasting for as long as a typical football match including injury time, Liv Hennessy fillets down the seven days of High Court evidence into a slick one-two of drama that slots home a brilliant explanation of Rooney’s exposé of Vardy’s leaking of her private life to The Sun newspaper. With the beautiful game running through the heart of show, Hennessy’s script offers up the throw-in of a couple of court-side pundits who deftly sidestep the story’s more cumbersome legal details, allowing the cast to take a wicked deflection with the narrative and keep the audience gripped as the play’s end-to-end storytelling unfolds.

The pace is fast, witty and perceptive - and it’s a mark of the show’s role as a record of very modern history, that nearly all of the laughs come from the trial’s verbatim transcripts. What brings the dryness of the English legal system to life however is the outstanding performances from Lucy May Barker and Laura Dos Santos as, respectively, Vardy and Rooney, with equally brilliant turns from Tom Turner as Rooney’s barrister David Sherborne and Jonathan Broadbent as Vardy’s silk Hugh Tomlinson. Under Lisa Spirling’s direction all four leads exquisitely capture the essence of their characters in a crackingly crafted combination of caricature and credibility. Dos Santos goes so far as to elicit a touch of sympathy towards the humiliation that Coleen Rooney has endured, with dignity, for years.

Pitch-side, the show’s creatives have a fine game too. Polly Sullivan’s set and costumes capture both the gravitas of the courtroom alongside the stiletto-spiked accoutrements of WAG-dom. Likewise Johanna Town’s lighting plots keep the tempo slick.

For an evening of informative and often hilarious entertainment, Vardy v Rooney hits the back of the net.

Runs until May 20th, then on tour

Photo credit: Pamela Raith