Theatre review: Chorus of Disapproval, Pitlochry

PITLOCHRY, on a warm summer afternoon; and for the second time in 24 hours – after Blood Brothers at the Playhouse – I find myself watching a fine piece of theatre, written in England in the 1980s, that now seems like a message from a different planet.

Chorus of Disapproval

Pitlochry Festival Theatre

* * * *

It’s not that the great Alan Ayckbourn pulls any punches, in his portrayal of what happens when a shy but handsome young widower called Guy joins his local amateur dramatic society, just as they are about to tackle John Gay’s 18th century masterpiece, The Beggar’s Opera. Like Macheath, the hero he ends up playing, Guy soon finds himself besieged by the affections of at least two women; and Ayckbourn is relentless in his portrayal of the company’s insensitive and bullying amateur director, Dafydd (a frighteningly persuasive Carl Patrick) and of the fierce sexual frustration and energy of the town’s women, including Dafydd’s unhappy wife Hannah, played with great feeling by Irene Allen.

From wife-swapping parties to grubby land-deals, the world Ayckbourn describes seems a dated one now, when sexual infidelity has lost its frisson, and multinational companies have moved on from exploiting and abandoning small communities, to reshaping every aspect of our lives. Yet Richard Baron’s 14-strong company make a fine job of interpreting the play for a 21st century audience, in a production that thoroughly enjoys the play’s vision of church-hall dramatics at their most passionate. And Alex Scott Fairley turns in a charismatic and well-judged performance as Guy, the quiet homme fatal who wreaks havoc among the women, in a decade when women once again needed to make no apology for their sexuality, and their desire.