Dangerous Corner

Published Wednesday 14 May 2008 at 12:20 by Barbara Lewis

Revivals of period pieces can make them suddenly seem extremely contemporary - or quaintly dated.

With a lovingly-assembled set and era-evocative ballgowns, Show Don’t Tell’s production of JB Priestley’s thirties classic places the emphasis on the then, rather than the now.

Robust humour is the main bridge to our own times and establishes an ironic distance between us and the cut-glass accents and use of words like “gay” and “queer” in their original sense.

One consequence is to take away the unsettling edge Priestley’s work should have had in the thirties when chipping away the veneer of “a snug little group” was a risque business. But, under Daniel Brennan’s measured direction, we enjoy a cosy, well-made play.

The acting is generally high-standard, if at times melodramatically loud, and the cast works well as an ensemble, perhaps thanks to the company’s mentor US drama practitioner Viola Spolin, who advocates “an artistic group relationship”.

Some of the loudest laughs are drawn out by Lucy Grainger as the faux innocent Betty Whitehouse and Lainey Shaw as Miss Mockridge, the aloof auteur, always “dropping bricks” that point dangerously to the truth lying beneath the veneer.