Theatre review: Lark, Clark and the Puppet Handy

IF EVER you needed proof that small-screen fame is no guarantee of theatrical flair, then you should consider heading to the Tron this week. Lark, Clark And The Puppet Handy is a nostalgic, surreal rom-com set in a down-at-heel social club one night in the late 1950s.

The play is written by Daniel Boyle, whose television credits include episodes of Morse, Taggart and Rebus, and in a slightly awkward mash-up between the styles of John Osborne's Entertainer and Frank Capra's It's A Wonderful Life, it tells how an angel in an improbable guise intervenes in the broken relationship of Lark and Clark, once an adoring husband-and-wife singing duo, but now bitter enemies, following an ugly divorce.

The show features an attractive performance from Barbara Rafferty as Lark, a decent one from Sean Scanlan as Clark, and a nervy and often completely garbled one from Frank Gallagher as the mysterious barman.

The real problem, though, lies in a play that doesn't know how to balance tragedy and comedy, that fails to achieve any emotional development through an interminable 45-minute first act, that has no idea how to use the music that lurks in the background, and offers no clue as to why it is set in the 1950s at all: neither character seems dressed for the period, and no aspect of the decor (a little black number by Kenny Miller) seems very 50s in style.

There's nothing wrong with Boyle's situation or theme, and the show redeems itself slightly with a delicious turn of events in the final minute.

As a piece of theatre, though, it's slow-moving, uncertain in tone, and sometimes just plain inept.

And Stuart Davids's uninspired direction does it no favours, often leaving the actors standing around waving their hands helplessly, as they try to create theatre out of yet another chunk of flat-footed and repetitive dialogue.