Continuing in the fine tradition of plays-within-plays such as Alan Ayckbourn’s A Chorus Of Disapproval, Graham Holliday’s The Scottish Play, Michael Frayn’s Noises Off, The Play That Goes Wrong, Kenneth Branagh’s In The Bleak Midwinter and of course A Midsummer Night’s Dream, James Woolf’s The Play With Speeches is a clever – and more importantly – witty take on putting on a show, while dealing with actors of ‘limited ability’.

At the centre of the show is the relationship of Anthony (Matthew Parker) the ‘curator’ of the play excerpts that make up The Play With Speeches and director Penny (Katherine Reilly). What adds comedic frisson to the proceedings is the fact that they were formerly a couple, but out of mutual need, find themselves having to work together. But instead of the (ex-) couple conducting the auditions for the show in private, the theatre has sold tickets to the public – the audition process in effect becoming the focus of the show.

Under the direction of Ursula Campbell and Katherine Reilly, The Play With Speeches fleshes out all the ‘awkward’ facets of the audition process for the eponymous show. While there is arguably a heightened, comedic tone to the proceedings, there is a kernel of truth to the desperation of the actors and the production team stifling their verbal reactions, though their body language is a different matter…

Things are further complicated when Anthony and Penny each have their favourites. For Anthony it is Bambina (Anna Blackburn), while for Penny there is her sister-in-law Michaela (Ursula Campbell), as well the mutual attraction between herself and Lionel (Michael Perlmutter). As if this isn’t bad enough for Anthony, Lionel wants to play ‘him’, cranking the meta stakes up to ‘11′. In this respect, the play takes on the absurdist hue of Luigi Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author.

Other notable characters include Darren (Mayuresh Mishra) who keeps everyone guessing if he hates his performance or not, Nick (Joshua Jewkes) the stage manager who moonlights as an actor (or is it the other way around?), the multifaceted Felix (Mark Parsons) who ‘keeps on turning up like a bad penny’ and Alice (Camilla O’Grady) who takes ‘emoting’ to the next level.

While all the actors bring something special to their respective parts, Parker is undoubtedly the driving force of the show, whose physicality and turn of phrase has maximum comedic effect. It’s a part he was born to play.

© Michael Davis 2023

The Play With Speeches runs at ‘Upstairs at the Gatehouse’ until 18th June

https://upstairsatthegatehouse.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/1173641962