September in the Rain

John Godber’s comedy is a bittersweet journey that takes a married couple back to their first holiday in Blackpool and looks at the petty sillinesses that create conflicts. It’s a light piece of theatre but none the less charming for that and that is due to the excellent casting of John Thompson and Claire Sweeney. Thompson captures the slightly stereotypical dourness of the Yorkshire husband well and plays out his gradual decline into a far more benign old man from the feisty younger one well. Claire Sweeney once again proves that she is a actress of quality with a performance that sees her being both tender and petulant. She can certainly handle character well and such talent should see that she is never out of work. A thoroughly enjoyable evening that could only have been better if the play itself had been just a little weightier and given them both a little more to get their teeth into.

Theatre Royal Brighton, 7 October 2013
Rating:
Andrew Kay