Review: Muswell Hill

You will have heard that  Sam Walters, the Orange Tree’s Artistic Director has just received a well deserved Special Achievement Award at the Off West End Awards (Offies).

He is directing Torben Betts’ play Muswell Hill which is currently showing at the Orange Tree – go and see it, and you will totally understand why Sam was recognised by the Offies, focussing as they do on excellence, innovation and ingenuity of independent theatres across London.

You may have caught author Torben Betts’ excellent play The Company Man at the Orange Tree in 2010 – or heard of his Lie of the Land (an Edinburgh Fringe First Award nominated in 2008) and The Unconquered (Best New Play 2007 Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland).

Betts’ new play Muswell Hill focuses on a dinner party hosted by a north London couple for a mixed bunch of friends and family. It’s set in a real kitchen and the hostess actually beats up eggs to make an omelette before our eyes. It’s a readily-recognisable scene of middle class hospitality.

Jasmine Hyde plays the character of Jess, a successful accountant whose money is the main source of income for her husband Matt - whose writer’s block seems to be monumental and enduring - acted by Leon Ockenden. Their central duet is understated and genteel – no less painful in its restraint – to the histrionics of the would-be actress (hilariously portrayed by Tala Gouveia), her would-be lover/manager (Timothy Block), the loser ‘freak’ (the brilliant Dan Starkey) and the neurotic widow (Katie Hayes). It’s the sort of dinner party which could be a brilliant success or it could be a disaster, played out against the background news of the earthquake in Haiti which never quite engages the attention of our dinner party guests despite the innumerable methods of communication at hand: mobiles, laptops, computers, tvs only serve to highlight their selfish isolation. But having said all that, this is a really funny play, sharp and comic and exhibiting all the Orange Tree hallmarks of perfect timing and bittersweet irony all in the closest of close-ups.

Muswell Hill will be playing at the Orange Tree Theatre till 10 March 2012. To book tickets visit www.orangetreetheatre.co.uk or call 020 8940 3633
Orange Tree Theatre, 1 Clarence Street, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 2SA