Review of At the Torch from the theatre dance and drama in Wales web site

Unrecognisable characters fail to deliver

At the Torch

Torch Theatre- One for the Road , Torch Theatre, Milford Haven , February 10, 2003

SEVENTIES popular culture can seem so... well, naff, to use a '70s word, so retro it's a joke, a past that can only be visited with irony: think flares, Abba, disco fever...

But some things never change, as Peter Doran shows in his revival of Willie Russell's witty comedy One for the Road.

Disaffected Dennis, stuck in an anonymous Liverpool private housing estate listening to Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan and hankering after the hitch-hiking days of his youth, is still a recognisable figure more than 20 years later - except his pet hate is not John Denver (as in the original) but Chris de Burgh.

And now, the references are to mobile phones, breadmakers, Delia and Nigella, sushi, DVDs, Richard and Judy, Buffy and Bombay Dreams.

Their bourgeois paradise - or prison, as trapped Dennis would have it - is now furnished by Ikea, and the bizarre celebrity sex game that the wife-swapping couples play involves Anne Robinson rather than Joan Bakewell (don't ask), but the dilemmas are the same.

Dennis is, in effect, an early prototype of Willie Russell's most famous creation Shirley Valentine.

The situation is obviously recognisable but in this enjoyable but unconvincing production, alas, the characters are not - for a start, the four friends we meet are supposed to of an age who were students in the '60s whereas I would guess none of the cast were even born then.

Liam Tobin, an enthusiastic Dennis, is hardly credible as a man facing a mid-life crisis (and Huw Bevan actually played a schoolboy in the last Torch show!), all the characters tended to be played as caricatures in social stereotypes and too many jokes were poorly delivered

Reviewed by: David Adams

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At the Torch- reviewed by Ron Waters (14 May 2011)
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At the Torch- reviewed by Ron Waters (07 August 2009)
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At the Torch- reviewed by Adam Somerset (26 April 2009)
At the Torch- reviewed by Tim Barrett (12 December 2008)
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At the Torch- reviewed by David Adams (04 December 2006)
At the Torch- reviewed by David Adams (25 October 2006)
At the Torch- reviewed by Michael Kelligan (20 July 2006)
At the Torch- reviewed by Michael Kelligan (09 March 2006)
At the Torch- reviewed by Ron Waters, The Stage (16 February 2006)
At the Torch- reviewed by David Adams (12 February 2006)
At the Torch- reviewed by Terry Johnson, The Stage (15 October 2005)
At the Torch- reviewed by Fiona Phillips (12 October 2005)
At the Torch- reviewed by David Adams (06 October 2005)
At the Torch- reviewed by Simon Carr. Western Telegraph (09 December 2004)
At the Torch- reviewed by David Adams (23 October 2004)
At the Torch- reviewed by Emma Jones, Western Telegraph (21 October 2004)
At the Torch- reviewed by Ron Walters, Milford Mercury (21 October 2004)
At the Torch- reviewed by Graham Williams (10 March 2004)
At the Torch- reviewed by David Adams (06 February 2004)
At the Torch- reviewed by Vivien Stoddart (06 February 2003)
At the Torch- reviewed by Jenny Hanson, Tenby Observer (05 February 2003)
At the Torch- reviewed by ANDREW DAVIES, TENBY OBSERVER (31 January 2003)
At the Torch- reviewed by Viv Stoddart, The Stage (06 December 2002)
At the Torch- reviewed by David Adams (06 December 2002)
At the Torch- reviewed by JENNY HANSON (06 December 2002)
At the Torch- reviewed by ANDREW DAVIES, TENBY OBSERVER (06 December 2002)
At the Torch- reviewed by Assorted Edinburgh papers (02 August 2002)
At the Torch- reviewed by Zoe Hewett (26 March 2002)
At the Torch- reviewed by Zoe Hewett (09 March 2002)
At the Torch- reviewed by Michael Kelligan (09 March 2002)
At the Torch- reviewed by Rebecca Nesvet (28 February 2002)
At the Torch- reviewed by Viv Stoddart, The Stage (21 February 2002)
At the Torch- reviewed by Andrews Davies (15 February 2002)
At the Torch- reviewed by MILFORD & WEST WALES MERCURY (15 February 2002)
At the Torch- reviewed by Keith Johnson, Western Telegaph (13 February 2002)
At the Torch- reviewed by Tenby Observer (07 December 2001)
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At the Torch- reviewed by Janet Bott (07 December 2001)
At the Torch- reviewed by Fiona Phillips (05 December 2001)
At the Torch- reviewed by Vivien Stoddart (26 October 2001)
At the Torch- reviewed by David Adams (11 September 2001)
At the Torch- reviewed by David Adams (09 August 2001)
At the Torch- reviewed by Victoria Cooper (10 March 2001)
At the Torch- reviewed by Elaine Atack (03 March 2001)
At the Torch- reviewed by Rebecca Nesvett (28 February 2001)
At the Torch- reviewed by Vivien Stoddart (The Stage) (15 February 2001)
At the Torch- reviewed by David Adams (14 February 2001)
At the Torch- reviewed by Ron Waters (08 February 2001)
At the Torch- reviewed by David Adams (21 October 2000)

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