A Review.: Henry and Alice and Orca

by Les May

THE third production of the Curtain Theatre’s season of five plays has the intriguing title ‘The Secret Lives of Henry and Alice’.  Contrary to the picture of the two lithe twenty somethings on the front of the programme the characters have been married for a quarter of a century and, shall we say, are no longer in the full flush of youth, and romance, if not actually dead, is certainly sleeping quietly.  Time enough for each of them to be familiar with the other’s idiosyncrasies; time enough its seems for a tinge of irritation to have crept in.

But what to do?  Instead of engaging with each other, with all its potential for open warfare, each of them engages with us, the audience.  They tell us the words and dreams they do not, or perhaps dare not, share with each other. There’s no malice in what they tell us, but not each other.  Even in their dreams they shrink from anything that would disturb the gentle, if dull, equilibrium of their lives.

The most exciting thing that happens to punctuate the ordinariness of their lives is the death of their apparently ‘non-binary’ goldfish, Orca.  So why was it so funny?  That’s easy; an excellent script and two actors who slid so comfortably into their roles.  Damian Kavanagh gave Henry the right amount of dullness combined with a wry humour.  Ros Hendren showed a talent for switching Alice from the frumpiness of reality to the sexy seductress of her fantasy.

You can find details of this and future productions on the Curtain Theatre website: www.curtaintheatrerochdale.co.uk

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