Star Power

Published Thursday 3 July 2008 at 15:40 by Nuala Calvi

The well-worn interior of the Landor pub theatre provides the perfect backdrop to Tony Sportiello’s rollicking tale of a struggling London fringe company offered a lifeline by the desperate agents of a washed-up former child actor.

Star Power’s far-fetched premise has Jack Moran’s American backers willing to sink £100,000 into any production that’ll have him - even if it’s at a theatre no one’s heard of in Clapham North (guffaw).

Cue noses out of joint as the company’s long-suffering players reshuffle to make way for the impostor, and a clash of cultures as Hollywood-hating director Karen (Chloe Walsh) teaches Jack a thing or two about ‘real’ acting.

Fast-paced dialogue and occasionally brilliant one-liners, mostly reserved for the acerbic Karen, cover for a series of subsequent plot twists that wouldn’t be entirely out of place in one of Jack’s early schmaltzy movies, while in-jokes about Equity contracts and the Writers’ Guild clearly strike a strong chord with the audience’s fringe theatre fraternity.

As Jack, Sean Taylor is, fittingly, the star of the show - convincingly nauseating in his dark glasses, aviator jacket and sneakers, recounting tales of skinny dipping with Brad.

Cassidy Jansen provides strong support as his leading lady, Sarah - initially dazzled by Jack’s celebrity connections, until she sees the error of her ways and goes back to eating homemade sandwiches with her impoverished actor buddies.

But it’s not all back slapping superiority - Star Power raises the painful question that every fringe theatre company has to face - does it make any difference how good your work is, if only your family and friends ever see it? Hopefully that’s not a question Reckless Endeavour will have to answer.