Review: The Small Hours, Sidmouth Summer Play Festival

This unique and wonderful institution is, once again, providing a feast of entertaining theatrical delights over the next three months. 12 different plays over 12 weeks is no small feat and not one you will find in any other town in the country. This is the 10th Season to have been produced by Paul Taylor-Mills and it has now started its journey which lasts until 23 September.

A staple of the Season has been the thriller and Francis Durbridge is something of a favourite amongst those who regularly attend. Known for his radio and TV thrillers first and foremost, Durbridge’s venture into stage plays came rather later in his life and ‘The Small Hours’ hails from 1991.

What Durbridge delivers is complex plots which slowly build to a climax and a reveal of who did what and how; throughout he tempts the viewer into trying to work out the solution. Such is the ingenuity of the plot, subplots and red herrings, that it isn’t always worthwhile trying to play detective – indeed don’t look too closely into the storyline as you might find a few holes.

‘The Small Hours’ starts on board a plane which is hijacked and leads to one of the passengers finding himself in a world of intrigue and the target of hitmen. There is something of the Hitchcock about the plot and, without wanting to give anything away, there are some similarities with films such as ‘North by Northwest’ and certain other of the great director’s works.

Thomas Willshire offers a good line in befuddled bewilderment as Carl Houston, the hotelier at the centre of the story; is the man lying through his teeth? Strong support comes from Polly Smith as his wife Vanessa and Eoin Lynch as the dogged man from Scotland Yard. Sidmouth regular, Mark Laverty, adds to the suspects with a good line in ‘sinister’ as the hotel chef. In this world, you can’t trust anyone,  maybe not even the efficient hotel secretary Ruth, played with great poise by Rosie Edwards. Or what about the smooth speaking Oliver Radford; James Pellow in his 19th Season at Sidmouth offering great strength to the cast. Then there’s the chef’s wife Millie or Carl’s fellow passenger during the hijack, Ronnie, played by Sarah Dearlove and Charlie Tripp (a Sidmouth resident) respectively.

The strong cast bring matters to a conclusion eventually, but not before the audience have tried to work everything out! Durbridge’s dialogue is, at times rather clumsy – reliance on the use of names too often for instance – he also likes characters to drink very regularly and use the telephone a lot, but the cast cope.

A play set in 1991 is tricksy – there are few visual clues that actually place it in that actual era – it can appear to be contemporary – until there is no use of mobile phones, emails and a typewriter sits on the desk. Modernising a Durbridge play, even one from the 1990s, is fraught with danger though, such is the machinations of his plotting.

Andrew Beckett, who is overseeing the whole season this year, has, once again, designed a smart and very believable set which is well lit and used to the full.

Robert McWhir directs with great confidence and keeps the action moving swiftly – Durbridge plays can have moments when you want to shout “Get on with it!” – not so here, it is well paced and the suspense builds effectively – the underscoring works particularly well.

A good solid start to the Season and a great sized audience were enthralled. If you fancy playing the sleuth, you could do worse than catching this.

‘The Small Hours’ runs until 1 July.

Next week – 3-8 July – something completely different; the famous farce ‘Boeing Boeing’ by Marc Camoletti. For information and tickets visit www.manorpavilion.com