CityLife

Lord Arthur Savile's Crime

Lord Arthur Savile's Crime
Palace Theatre
March 8, 2010

Wilder than Wilde himself, this frivolous piece of 19th century nonsense is resurrected for a 21st century audience by a sparkling adaptation, inventive direction and of course by Wilde's famous one-liners written with a pen dipped in vitriolic acid.

The Irish playwright's disdain for the mindless aristocracy slavishly following each fashion even, in this case, palm-reading, is evident in this amoral tale of a gullible young man who feels forced to commit murder by a mercenary palmist.

Trevor Baxter's fine adaptation and Christopher Luscombe's entertaining direction sets this melodrama, with its florid prose and poetry, within the colourful, card-board cut-out proscenium arch of a Victorian toy theatre. This enables sets to fly quickly in and out to humorous musical accompaniment.

Popular Lee Mead (Heart-Throb Of The Halls), winner of the television competition Any Dream Will Do, who went on to successfully play Joseph in London's West End, makes his straight acting debut in the title role.

He's totally engaging in his susceptibility and his failed attempts to fulfil his predicted future supply the comedy. He even gets to sing a little ditty at the end with his fiance Sybil, played by Louisa Clein (Pretty As A Picture).

Manchester favourite, Gary Wilmot (The Wonder Of The Age), another musical theatre actor playing a straight role, is the palmist Podgers while Derren Nesbitt (Late Of The Post Office Rifles) is a Teutonic anarchist with bombs which constantly fail to explode.

Glamorous Kate O'Mara (Queen Of All She Surveys) plays a Lady Windermere which owes much to Lady Bracknell and delivers her scathing lines with aplomb. While Blackburn born and Manchester Polytechnic trained David Ross (Celebrated Protean) has fun as the befuddled Dean of Chichester.

Although the theatre was half empty, the audience thoroughly enjoyed this amusing, albeit rather macabre comedy.
 

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