Closer, by Patrick Marber Directed by Nick Mazonowicz Tickets: £8

Set in 1990s London, this no-holds-barred comedy follows a stripper, a journalist, a photographer and a doctor through four years of romantic turmoil as they fall in and out of love. Winner of the Evening Standard award for Best Comedy 1997, the play was made into a film with Jude Law and Julia Roberts. Contains strong language and sexual references. Cast Dan : Dave Keeley Alice : Emily Lee Larry : Steve Evans Anna : Janine Hornsby

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Gloucestershire Echo Review

Tough love doesn't come much tougher than in Patrick Marber's Closer. There's none of the heady abandon conventional to most love stories. The four characters are fairly clinical in surrendering themselves to the whims of their romantic moods. Although there are challenges in presenting the play, its realness can help the actors deliver performances audiences can connect with and maybe, in some cases, relate to.

The bare simplicity of the format brings the best out of the cast in the Deep End Theatre Company production of the play, which closes at The Playhouse tonight. Steve Evans plays the self-absorbed Larry, with Dave Keeley as Dan, the enigmatic romantic lead. An early scene where Dan, out of boredom, strings along Larry in a cyberspace sex chat room provides the production's comedy high spot. Their filthy virtual conversation is projected at the rear of the stage, as they let their fingers do the talking. That leads, inadvertently, to Larry's first meeting with Anna (Janine Hornsby), setting in train a complicated string of intense relationships, as characters drift in and out of love, or something like it, with each other.

The female leads are every bit as strong as their male counterparts, with Hornsby's Anna the more resolute and worldly-wise of the two. Emily Lee gives a powerful portrayal of Alice, an innocent as the youngest character, but she's prepared to use her sexuality to get by as a table dancer - she finds the occupation gives her a control she can't exercise generally.

It is not for those easily offended by the near- knuckle language but the dialogue is wholly appropriate to the subject matter and tone of a work that does not flinch in the face of its honesty. It might seem a bit grim but it is never less than absorbing.

    Christine Donnelly, Gloucestershire Echo

 

Near The Mark and Beyond

A sobering reflection of our times, this is Noel Coward’s Private Lives gone to the dark side, having abandoned any veneer of refined bourgeois respectability. There is no sugar-coating here; boy meets girl alright, but there the merriment ends, and no-one rides off happily into the sunset. Patrick Marber’s controversial and uncompromising take on the fickleness of relationships is not for the faint-hearted, nor the easily offended. Bristling with what is still euphemistically called strong language, lascivious intimacies and the dubious exchanges of the cybersex chat room (inventively staged in front of a giant internet screen and devoid of any dialogue), it bears witness to the old adage that you always hurt the one(s) you love. With little more than a few essential props, the simplicity of the presentation makes every scene all the more powerful, indeed harrowing to behold. Raw emotions surface, sparks fly and the tensions linger.

The cast of four, each representing someone in the body business, is strong and thrilling to watch. Inscrutable obituary writer Dan, headstrong photographer Anna, feisty lapdancer Alice and dissipated dermatologist Larry are quite brilliantly played by Dave Keeley, Janine Hornsby, Emily Lee and Steve Evans respectively. Watching them unpack all the psychological baggage and simmering anger of their embittered characters, and resolutely fighting their corner, we can readily empathise with them and all they have to endure.

Occasionally lacking in pace, Nick Mazonowicz’s production is nonetheless savage, direct and undeniably engaging. It is in your face, daring you to look away and pretend that all is sweetness and light. It isn’t. This is life, warts ‘n’ all, and there’s no escape. Impressive.

    Simon Lewis for BBC Radio Gloucestershire Theatre & Arts

 

Letter sent to the Gloucestershire Echo

Madam - Congratulations to the Deep End theatre company on its exceptional production of Closer that I saw at the Playhouse Theatre.  It was an absorbing piece of theatre, sensitively handled and flawlessly acted.  The passion and commitment of both those on stage and behind the scenes was clear to see.

    Sarah Lambert, Cheltenham.