Sing To Me Through Open Windows
By Arthur Kopit
Directed by Andy Brunskill
The Private Ear
By Peter Shaffer
Directed by David Siebert

Orange Tree Theatre Richmond
3rd – 20th June

The Orange Tree is a rare breed in that it is a working theatre that trains new directors and gives them opportunities to work as assistant directors and to direct their own shows. Over fifty have now trod that path and seven are now artistic directors at major British theatres.

Arthur Kopit is not well known to British audiences and as such this was a brave and adventurous choice by Andy Brunskill and on the evidence of this piece is certainly an author I would like to see more from. David Antrobus is very nicely manic as Ottoman and is beautifully supported by his servant Loveless played by Paul O’Mahony. Ashley George plays the third character Andrew, wonderfully naive, through whom the story seems to emerge. The skill in directing this piece is not to enforce a story upon the audience, but to provide enough that their own thoughts shape the story and then the audience can find the message meant for them. Indeed it would be best if all left the auditorium having each seen a different play. Andy Brunskill does this superbly, each character is multifaceted, the plot is very open and enticing and the various effects and sounds draw you through those open windows to this very strange room and the world created by Arthur Kopit.
Just to see that piece and to be introduced to the work of Kopit would have been enough, however, the much better known piece The Private Ear by Peter Shaffer was also billed and this too was very nicely directed.
There is a story with this piece. Young Bob has invited Doreen round to his flat for dinner, a work colleague, a knave of a character called Ted has volunteered to cook, an exotic 1962 meal of soup, lamb chops and tinned fruit. Bob is obsessed with music, Ted is obsessed with sex and poor Doreen, rather nervously is interested in neither and so the scene is set for a rather nightmare evening.
I really enjoyed this piece and felt a great deal of empathy with Bob played by Tam Williams, he really is only interested in his music, it is the only thing he has ever managed to master and at long last he feels he has found a soul mate and what he really wants to do is to share his passion with her, but a friend like Ted, played by Ben Nathan, is no friend at all. The director, David Siebert, manages to find a good balance between these two characters. Then there is Doreen, beautifully nervous and superbly played by Amy Neilson Smith, brave enough to accept the invitation to dinner and is looking for something, anything rather than the life she has been dealt with. This really did feel like life in1962, when sophistication was a glass of Rosé and in innocence an invitation to dinner normally meant dinner, but we all wished it didn’t.

These are two very good pieces, each worth seeing just by themselves, but here you get the bonus of the pair of them. I look forward to seeing future productions by the pair of them.

Reviewed by Evan Rule