REVIEW: Habeas Corpus at The Bear Pit Theatre, Stratford

Peter Buckroyd reviews Habeas Corpus

VANESSA Corner’s lively production of Alan Bennett’s 1973 play Habeas Corpus is a lot of fun.

It’s a mildly satirical social comedy treating a whole range of taboos among the upper middle classes: stuff we now take for granted but which in 1973 were rarely openly spoken about: sex as people’s primary motivation; doctors’ sexual indiscretions with patients; marital infidelity; enhancing breast size by the use of falsies in order to look more alluring; a vicar who wants to marry a young lady because she is flat chested and looks like a boy.

There is a chorus tag line running through the play of the ‘permissive society’.

All this is counterbalanced by the working class narrator/cleaner. Various liaisons are embarked upon and unmasked, and self-interested hypocrisy revealed at the end.

Set in Brighton and Hove, Martin Tottle and Chris Jackson’s set effectively conjures up a seaside resort with bunting, a Punch and Judy show, a pier, and a cleverly constructed multi-purpose hinged piece which serves as the Wicksteeds’ house, bathing chalets and a doctor’s consulting room.

The characters’ names are the key to their personality in good Restoration comedy style.

Although Vanessa Corner’s initial idea is to present caricatures, these do shift into characters towards the end of the play and the audience becomes increasingly engaged with what is happening. A skilful decision.

Energy and pace are two of the keys to the production’s charm and success.

So is some splendid acting. Pamela Hickson as the sex starved, predatory and ‘big’ Muriel Wicksteed is a joy to watch throughout.

Richard Ball as Canon Harold Throbbing, whether on stage or riding across the stage on his bicycle is splendid. The lost soul Mr Purdue is rather a thankless role but Adrian McCarthy does wonders with it. And Niki Baldwin as Amelia Swabb holds the whole thing together in assured fashion.

It was interesting to see two characters transform at the end.

Margot McLeary becomes a fully-rounded character all of a sudden when she tells the story of her past in a spotlight with the rest of the cast round her. She also has the best line of the play: “I saw his face only in the light of a post-coital Craven A”.

Echoing her transformation is Kathy Buckingham Underhill’s change of dress, style and posture as Constance Wicksteed, which, at the end, heralds a new post-1973 dawn.