While I have given Book Club 3-and-a-half stars, I must say I was grinning throughout. I really enjoyed the humour and relatable characters and thought the pace of the show builds well. For a low budget show, I thoroughly enjoyed the ensemble performance, and I felt that I knew someone like all these characters. Nonetheless, the performance would benefit from the actors relaxing into their characters more and some changes to the narrative.
I would like to praise the performer and writer Kate Bromage, playing the dweeb-y dog mum Susan, who at the start seems to be merely a background character. As the show develops and friendships form, she comes out of her shell, which in fact makes perfect sense for her timid character. Her comedic timing is good, and I felt she was perhaps the only performer who never over-acted.
Aisla Wright is another standout performer, constantly keeping the audience laughing. However, her portrayal of Gemma lacks layers. Particularly at the start, she followed up every line delivery with a laugh and a sip of wine, which was certainly funny at points, but diminished in humour due to its sheer frequency. A simple grimace in places would’ve highlighted other funnier moments, giving the performance balance, rather than a sense of predictability. When the actor relaxed into her character, it felt less like she was aware that she was onstage, and she delivered a much more naturalistic performance.
Joanna Dodd plays the tight-lipped control freak Linda, who keeps the pace of the play going with her tight schedule. However, her tone was a little too close to something from Google Translate, making her incessant time keeping a little metronomical and emotionless, even when the writing was encouraging some compassion from her. Nevertheless, the protagonist’s wit, and flaws, hold the piece together.
Joe Waterfield plays James, and whilst I liked the comic relief of his character, Waterfield was too dramatic at the start. In such an intimate setting, he searches his scene partners’ faces with simply too much curiosity to be considered naturalistic. His character developed credibility as the show continued but I feel that perhaps this actor would be better suited to musical theatre on a bigger stage.
This script has potential; however, I have two critiques. The exclusion of Colin Sheehan’s character Bob was funny at first but fundamentally existed just to show us Linda’s flaws; he could’ve been welcomed to Book Club rather than feeling almost like a mime. My second fault with the script is that instead of the dog Winnie dying, something else could’ve happened with Bob to build his presence. The audience had no investment in this dog that they hadn’t met, and whilst it serves to unite the members of the book club, perhaps there is another way to reach that same end point.
Book Club ran until 22 August at Haldane Theatre at theSpace at Surgeon’s Hall.
Visit its website here.
Image provided by New Stagers to The Student as press material.
