A sharp, intelligently produced and delivered staging of the Roger Rees / Rick Elise 1980s romantic thriller ‘Double Double’ at Cirencester’s Barn Theatre. Running until 30 May ‘Double Double’ is a rollercoaster of emotions and relationships – ‘zigs’ here, ‘zags’ there – but with an ending equivalent to that of Oblivion’s monumental plummet at Alton Towers. Ryan McBryde’s direction and the characters of Philippa and Duncan, inhabited by Faye Brookes and Daniel Brocklebank deliver everything that the play can give, and the standing ovation at the end was the audience acknowledgement of a captivating yet thoroughly enjoyable experience in the intimate but immersing environment of Cirencester’s Barn Theatre.
Nearly at the fortieth anniversary of the first production at London’s Fortune Theatre, the relationships and emotions are as apposite today as they were in 1986. The production and setting reflect this timeless relevance. Whilst the grey and silver set is of that latter twentieth century era – very much Habitat and Heals, exactly what would be the style of a well-to-do London apartment, Philippa’s opening line to the play was ‘Alexa, lights on’. And on went the lights. And against this eighties ‘Habitat’ environment a (contemporary) iPad was there to drive much of the production forward.
Philippa James is recently widowed. Two or three weeks before the setting of the play. But her husband Richard’s death happened in climes far away, in circumstances that never drew the attention of the authorities. On his fortieth birthday he was due to receive a multi-million pound inheritance from his late mother’s trust, but only after this landmark date for him, and only if he were married, and had been for ten years.
Philippa realises that without ‘him’ – Richard – no inheritance. And she isn’t exactly flush. So she sets out to find a ‘new Richard’, a doppleganger who can become ‘Richard’ for the purpose of signing for the inheritance. And after a search, Duncan is chosen. A rough sleeping Glaswegian, pretty closed in almost every respect but physically nearly the same as Richard. Could Duncan become Richard in a week?
And that is where the rollercoaster sets off….. Powerful renditions of Philippa by Faye Brookes and similarly of Duncan by Daniel Brocklebank, who manages to morph from the broad Glasggie of Rab C Nesbit to the clipped RP tones of a BBC announcer in half a sentence.
Intensity of emotion within their relationship is created and driven by Faye and Daniel, powerful and mobile. Nothing stays the same for long. Even ‘long’ being seconds.
A production of a classic play to be enjoyed in the delightful setting of Cirencester’s Barn Theatre, one of Marlborough’s nearby excellent theatres, the other notable being The Watermill in Newbury.
Worth a trip up the A346 and A419? Yes. And a trip to the Barn Theatre is worth the journey alone, but this production of ‘Double Double’ gives that ‘Double’ reason for the journey…..
Anna Simmons exhibition at The Little Gallery
