Marlon Brando’s Corset

Published Wednesday 9 August 2006 at 13:15 by Nick Awde

Nick is the harried scriptwriter for TV hospital soap Healing Hands. He is not a happy man, beleaguered as he is on all sides by actors after juicer roles and a debt collector after his knee-caps. Manic director Lex inadvertently puts fuel on the fire when he bounds in for a pep talk.

“You’re a troubled genius,” he soothes. “I’m a troubled hack!” comes the anguished reply.

Les Dennis and Mike McShane - as Nicky and Lex respectively - grab you the second they come onstage during the opening five minutes. Like Matthau and Lemmon, their banter sizzles with world weary wit, yet don’t expect a star vehicle since this turns out to be an energetic ensemble piece, with every actor acquitting themselves well.

Getting their teeth into the soap’s rabble of a cast are Jeremy Edwards, Kelly Ryan, Jim Field-Smith and Jennifer Tolliday. Entertainingly, their TV roles sum up their offset characters: there’s the dumb but scheming blonde nurse, the dumber but just as scheming romantic male lead, the frustrated second lead who longs for more than a scene with an injured monkey and the sensitive motherly one, secure in her position as Nick’s muse.

Events take a darker turn as the hapless, self-centred actors suddenly find themselves faced with a dilemma and lose the plot in a way that even Poirot would struggle to help them out of. So will they overcome their differences and finally work together? How will they react to drama when it becomes real life? And what exactly is Marlon Brando’s corset?

Writer Guy Jones balances comedy and suspense with a healthy dollop of satire, aimed directly at today’s altar of celebrity. But though the laughs kick in with a vengeance as things turn more gruesome, his script still needs a good overhaul, while Ed Curtis’ direction can be a tad sticky despite its overall reliability. But all this is carping of the minor order since this is a thoroughly enjoyable comic ride with an unexpected moral sting in its tail.