Over at Ealing’s Questors Theatre Studio, a new adaptation of Patrick Hamilton’s novel The Slaves of Solitude, by Simon Roberts, is an entertaining black comedy about wartime misfits in a Thames Lockdon guest house.
Hamilton is perhaps best known for his plays Rope and Gas Light, both achieving international success through 1940s film versions. The Slaves of Solitude is a novel which focuses on Miss Enid Roach (played here with style and understanding by Sherralyn).
The busy cast chorus tell us she’s 39, a spinster, a publisher’s reader in London, former schoolteacher. In the Rosamund Tea Rooms, run by Mrs Payne (an officious yet sensitive performance from Despina Sellar), a rag-bag collection of retired types are in residence.
Miss Roach shares her table with the odious and loudly abusive Mr Thwaites (a well-judged turn by John Dobson, who delivers tedious phrases with relish and displays a really nasty streak of Hitler-worship), and sweet hypochondriac Mrs Barratt (Lisa Day, who also doubles as one of the local pub’s chattering gossips).
The quietly observant Miss Steele played by Anne Neville, who catches the eye with her calm affability), and mysterious Mr Prest (David Seller captures the salty pride of a retired comic, and amuses in other bit parts) are the other residents.
Into the tea-room for lunch come GIs Dayton (Guy Jack, who runs with a tricky role) and Mike (Alex Hunter, who shines as a late-act one drunk). Miss Roach, lonely as she is, catches at a chance of happiness and a moment in the sun.
Can the arrival of German stunner Vicki Kugelmann (Claudia Carroll capturing both Teutonic resilience and the fear of middle-age abandonment) make life any more interesting?
Roberts, with veteran director John Davey, has tackled a monster novel and given it a patriotic spirit. Set on a stage floor where the Union Flag lies on top of the Stars and Stripes, locations are varied and feelings are high.
Miss Roach’s journeys into the capital – very efficient for a country in crisis – give a sense of smog, wartime warnings, and shop shortages. Being Britain, of course, the tea-rooms and pubs have their clientele. We see a trip to a posh establishment that very possibly trades on the black market.
Pubs, cinemas, the office, even the great outdoors appear on the stage. Both sides of telephone calls are shown in the traditional way of each end of the stage, but with the play performed in the round you may miss out on these. Scene changes, mainly rearranging tables and chairs, are paced well.
Rounding out the cast are Sheila, who serves at the Rosamund (a strong comic bit from Ruby Barry), and Mr Lindsell (Anthony Green, who also plays the barman at The Sun, and whose suave energy offers kindness to Miss Roach). Alex Hunter switches roles from 2nd string American in act two to young Lindsell, a budding artist.
I found this play a fascinating attempt to make sense of a sprawling novel, and with the help of Jenny Richardson’s costumes, hair and make-up by Nicole Bilous and Faye Laming, and many quick changes, we are immersed in the world of air raids, rations, and acquaintances you would never meet in peacetime.
A smashing piece of theatre, The Slaves of Solitude is on at the Questors until 11 May with tickets here.
****
Image credit: Questors/PlayGC Theatre Company