While the Sun Shines

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SRD
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While the Sun Shines

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While the Sun Shines
Theatre Royal Bath
18-7-16
Last night to Bath for a pre-concert supper at Café Rouge (somewhat unimpressive although the service was good as was the white Macon Village even if it was pricey ) to an underwhelming performance of While the Sun Shines. Rattigan's "delightful little masterpiece of impertinence" (James Agate) played as a corny farce.
The acting was, on the whole, poor although Jonathan Dryden Taylor played a nicely understated Horton (the butler) whose military family links are far superior to any of the other characters, and Rupert Young (Lieutenant Mulvaney) also resisted the temptation to overplay the brash American who turns out Ok in the end.
But the play itself is amusing, although the plot is pretty corny until you take into account the background of Rattigan's homosexuality which adds a certain pathos, and attracted the blue pencil of the Lord Chamberlain at the time. Surely the play could now be produced with a completely different emphasis - but not in sedate Bath of course. And it is dated, comments about the differences between Harrow & Eton generally fall on deaf ears nowadays but would have explained a lot back then.
The set was good, conjuring up the odds & sods gathered by a declining aristocratic family with little in the way of taste and I didn't notice the lighting which suggests it worked well. It might have been good if the soda syphon actually worked though, having actors giving swishing sounds whenever a glass is presented to it and obviously no liquid comes out is a little naff.
Costume was varied, one can't go too far wrong with WWII uniforms except to the pedant. Horton's jacket wasn't quite right, too grey, not black enough to wear with pinstripes and the women failed to impress, the wardrobe mistress seems to have forgotten that sheer tights weren't available at that time and young female actors have spent too long in jeans and leggings to wear 1940s clothes well without a lot more effort than this brace put into it.
Looking back at this I suppose I'm nit-picking for a lot of the time, but if the play had carried me along I might not have noticed the flaws.
Children are like Slinkys - not much use for anything, but it always brings a smile to your face when you throw them down the stairs. Chinchilla
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marymary
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Re: While the Sun Shines

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LOL - swishing sounds :D
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Little John
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Re: While the Sun Shines

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I would have said its more of a "Shshing" sound.
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Lady P
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Re: While the Sun Shines

Post by Lady P »

It always amazes me how outdated some 1930s plays/books can be. I certainly would not know the difference between Harrow and Eton.
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marymary
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Re: While the Sun Shines

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The stripes, possibly.
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Re: While the Sun Shines

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Harrow is a public school while Eton is what you've done after dinner.
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Re: While the Sun Shines

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Little John wrote:Harrow is a public school while Eton is what you've done after dinner.
:lol:
Children are like Slinkys - not much use for anything, but it always brings a smile to your face when you throw them down the stairs. Chinchilla
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Re: While the Sun Shines

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Eat your heart out jack dee.
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