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Pub banter masks some dark secrets
Two, Halifax Thespians Total Theatre, The Playhouse, Halifax
ANOTHER night in a lively northern pub and as closing time is called the cracks begin to show.
Hardly unheard of around here. I've seen the situation first hand in many a Calderdale boozer. A pub in Sowerby Bridge knows how to nip it in the bud. The landlord lets off a foghorn halfway through the last song – nobody's getting anything for the road.
Not that the Halifax Thespians are so unaccommodating for their latest production, Two, by Jim Cartwright, author of The Rise and Fall of Little Voice.
The play tells the tale of a couple running a town centre pub, but their lively jokes and constant bickering mask a dark secret.
With a minimal set, imaginary pint glasses and even the crisp packets mimed, the cast of four create a pub as tense as it is lively.
A host of dark characters take their turn propping up the bar – wife beaters, podgy lotharios and a bored housewife who dreams of being whisked away by a strong-armed butcher.
And all the while the licensees, played by Mike Bellenie and Polly Bryan, hold court over their pub, their world.
The constant miming was a bit fiddly to watch, particularly when part of the bar seemed to disappear in the second act.
But the complex characters and scatter-gun script more than make up for any shortcomings and allow tension to build brilliantly.
So much so, supping a pint in the bar afterwards just seemed a bit boring in comparison.
Where's a butcher when you need one?
The production runs until Saturday (7.30pm).
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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