CityLife

April In Paris

April In Paris
The Lowry
March 2011

April in Paris – sounds wonderfully romantic, doesn’t it?

That’s what Bet thinks too when reading Bella magazine she spots a competition to win a night in the French capital.

Unfortunately there is little hope of romance in Bet’s life. She is married to Al, an unemployed builder who she describes as, “only one grunt short of being a pig”.

By anyone’s standards their life is drab, emphasised by the lack of colour in Pip Leckenby’s black-and-white set. They spend their lives either bickering or avoiding each other – him in his shed or her in her women’s magazines. After 25 years together life is so dull for the couple that even the tomato sauce has turned grey.

Just when it looks like life is one long moan they get their chance to experience something new. But can one night in the city of love bring some colour back into their lives?

What lifts the play from the couple’s mundane existence is the humour in their constant insults and the terrific casting.

Wendi Peters, best known as Coronation Street loudmouth Cilla Battersby-Brown, excels as the nagging, disillusioned housewife, Bet. In many ways the character is not a million miles away from her Weatherfield alter-ego, but here we feel that even though she tells her husband, “I could slit your throat and think I’ve done nowt,” she does have a heart.

Her wonderful comic timing has the audience laughing out loud, doing full justice to John Godber’s 1992 Olivier nominated script and winning her character sympathy despite the constant whining. Robert Angell too gives a very strong performance as a more measured, but equally cutting, Al – a role he previously played in 2002. 

Written 19 years ago during and about a time of recession, the current economic climate gives the play a contemporary resonance. And, breathing fresh life into well-worn characters, both actors give the script a renewed energy.

April in Paris is at The Lowry until Saturday (April 2).

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