Barrymore bursts back into big time

Published on Monday 4 August 2008 10:56

Surviving Spike ***** Assembly Rooms FUNNY, big hearted, emotional and hugely entertaining, Surviving Spike thwarted all the rumours and controversy surrounding big name star Michael Barrymore when it opened at the Assembly Rooms over the weekend.

Sunday afternoon's show, the first following two days of previews, saw a packed house with a large proportion of local people in the audience – giving the lie to the rumour that Edinburgh's residents don't go to the Fringe.

They saw a production that was not only a treat for fans of its subject, one-time Goon and general all-round funny man Spike Milligan, but was also one for fans of the two main performers.

Michael Barrymore had garnered all the pre-publicity. Grizzled and grey-skinned, he appeared every bit the part as Milligan – in his older age when he suffered from debilitating bouts of depression. But those who seek to sensationalise celebrity demonstrated their short-sightedness in overlooking Barrymore's co-star.

This is just as much Jill Halfpenny's show. She plays Norma Farnes, on whose book: "Spike, An Intimate Memoire", the play is based. In 1966, Norma was looking for work and took an agency job as Milligan's secretary.

It was only supposed to be for a few months until she got a proper job. But over the next 36 years, until his death in 2002, she became invaluable to the comedian, taking over the role of agent and manager and becoming his friend and confidante.

Halfpenny is fantastic in the role of this no-nonsense, bottle-blonde Yorkshire lass who quickly learns how to cope with all aspects of Milligan's troubled and tormented life.

From his maniacal workload to the depths of his depression; from his insistence on helping every good cause to the harem of girlfriends who followed him around, Norma is there to calm things down and cope with Milligan's most outrageous requests.

Halfpenny commands and holds the stage, while giving Barrymore every opportunity to excel as Spike. She dictates the pace of the whole piece, keeping it whipping along for a good hour and three quarters – which pass like half that time – while still finding the space to let it breath with emotion.

To credit Barrymore where he is due, he is also completely convincing. He bursts onto the open-plan set, remonstrating on behalf of some cause he has taken up for a few minutes before something else grabs his butterfly attention and he sidles off with some new plan already in action.

He doesn't try to mimic Spike MiIligan, aiming rather to give a real flavour of his character with all its spiky and cantankerous antagonisms. He goes so far as to pull a ten-minute slice of Milligan style stand-up into the middle of the show.

The whole thing is a taster for the genius of Milligan. It leaves you wanting more while managing to avoid the trap of playing too hard to Goon Show fans, and opening just a chink on Milligan's true personality.

There is one rumour going around that this production does not dispel, however. A rumour which says that if the show is a success on the Edinburgh Fringe, then it will get a transfer to the London West End.

On yesterday's showing it would not controversial in the slightest to say that such a transfer is a done deal.

Run ends August 25