STOP PRESS

November Production of

The Kitchen Sink

 

"Sometimes it all comes together. A fascinating and beautifully written play, a marvellous cast, a talented director and a faultless team effort.

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In 2012, the New Vic staging of The Kitchen Sink won its writer, Tom Wells, the Critics’ Circle and Tom Devine awards for Most Promising Playwright - and those lucky enough to have a ticket for the Holt Players’ production at the end of November saw why.

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Entirely set in a Yorkshire family kitchen with dodgy plumbing, Martin and Kath struggle to keep his milk float on the road and his dwindling business along with it. They share their home with their two children, the troubled and angry Sophie and the wannabe artist, Billy. The other on-stage character is Pete, a struggling plumber (who lives with his pot smoking and hip-hop loving granny!) hopelessly smitten with the cruelly indifferent Sophie. Kath holds her family together and is the only character who is even remotely articulate. All the others, especially Pete, are quite incapable of expressing their feelings (or indeed finishing a sentence), each yearning for the fulfilment of their hopes and dreams. Yer know…

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Maxon Bailey’s Martin was a hopeless romantic pursuing his destiny as the community milkman, life’s problems, including those of his children, largely washing over him. This was a well-judged and understated performance which brought the other, more expressive, characters into sharper focus.

 

Harry Harman gave us a touching and gentle Billy yearning for his primitive art to be valued and slowly developing the self-belief to drop out of his unsympathetic art college, despite the objections of his Mum and Dad.

 

Noelle Grierson created a wholly convincing Sophie, running her girls-only jujitsu class and devastated by the refusal of a misogynistic examiner to award her a black belt. Her rejection of the gentle Pete was painful to watch, her nastiness (and love of the marshal arts) inexplicable until the cathartic ‘reveal’ of the devastating sexual assault she endured as a teenager, an admission which seemed to open her up, at last, to the possibility of love and a happy future.

 

Dan Sung gifted us a brilliantly rounded Pete. Chronically shy and tongue-tied, his determined pursuit of Sophie gave the play much of its narrative drive.

 

Finally, Kirstin West gave a stand-out performance as the tenacious and feisty Kath, holding her family together through thick and thin, her sharp-tongued directness always underpinned by innate goodness.

 

This was a uniformly strong cast who gave an outstanding ensemble performance.

 

The Kitchen Sink was Richard Wright’s first involvement with Holt Players and his skilful direction ensured that the constant flow of visual and verbal gags were delivered in the context of believable characters interacting in a convincing way. And how funny those gags were - from the startling portrait of an excited Dolly Parton, an exploding tap and burnt cakes to the hilarious first experience of smoking pot by a giggly Kath. The dialogue zinged, the funny lines always landing with good timing.

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Richard’s stage design was beautifully realised by the set-building team - complete with running tap and smoking oven. The lighting was excellent as were the sound effects and musical links between each scene. Costumes and make-up were very good and stage management spot on. The many prop and costume changes were managed exceptionally well. It’s always a good sign when something complicated and difficult is made to look so simple and easy! Kath’s hilarious appearance in her Lollipop Lady regalia, soaked to the skin, was one of the many quick changes pulled off by this excellent team.

 

To list each and every member of that team would make for a dull read! Suffice it to say that this was an outstanding back-stage team achievement.

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Congratulations to everyone involved, including the Prompt who, on the night, had absolutely nothing to do!

This was about as good as it gets on the amateur stage. Congratulations to the director, Richard Wright, his cast and producers and their back-stage and front-of-house teams, never forgetting the cheerfully efficient bar staff! The three portraits of Dolly Parton were auctioned off after the final performance and, together with other generous donations, raised £100 for Dorothy House."

JP