A review of Hardboiled at Broad Hinton Village Hall

25 June 2014

HARDBOILED – THE FALL OF SAM SHADOW: Broad Hinton Village Hall 12 June

The Watermill Theatre’s production of HARDBOILED – The Fall of Sam Shadow celebrates the classic crime films of the immediate post-war years. The programme note by Beth Flintoff, co-creator with the Rhum and Clay Theatre Company of this exciting new play, catches the mood precisely with “I met a lot of hardboiled eggs in my life, but you – you’re twenty minutes”, a line from a famous 1951film.

Those of us who so much enjoyed Rhum and Clay in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde last year expected a production of lightning speed and almost balletic physicality from Christopher Elwood, Julian Spooner and Matthew Wells – and that’s what we got. How they and newcomer Jess Mabel Jones sustained the pace on the hottest night of the year so far, only they know. Many in the packed audience were in shorts, but Julian Spooner as Sam, the private investigator, spent much of the evening in a three piece suit. Moreover, the whole cast worked on their open, tiny stage in full view throughout – clever set design (by David Harris) allows them to whisk props around to indicate the scene for each twist of the plot without a break in the action. One outstanding example was the the scene where Sam raced from hiding place to hiding place as he was chased by the police.

Luis Henson, who operated Laurence T Doyle’s innovative lighting, also had a hectic evening. The story line involved frequent blackouts, deliberately caused by an energy company (think of the Enron scandal a few years ago) as part of a massive fraud. When there wasn’t a blackout, his lighting skills met needs as varied as office lighting, the bare bulb of an interview room, the subdued illumination for a bar, the inside of a power relay station and the flashing lights of passing police cars.

Touring a production like this imposes a heavy workload on a small party of four actors and two technical crew. They arrived in Broad Hinton at 1.30, having driven from The Watermill Theatre at Bagnor, near Newbury. It took them three hours to unload and erect their stage set, lighting and sound equipment. After an hour’s meal break, they were back in the Hall to warm up. Then, having acted for two hours (save for one brief interval), they struck the set, re-loaded again and left at 11 pm. By the time they got back to base, they would have travelled and worked for twelve hours. They do that nightly for several weeks!

Broad Hinton is very fortunate to have secured a regular visit from The Watermill on Tour. Since we opened our new Hall in 2009 we have enjoyed Gulliver’s Travels, Some Like It Hotter, Love on the Tracks, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and now HARDBOILED – The Fall of Sam Shadow. This latest production takes to the Watermill’s own stage 1-12 July. If you missed you it in Broad Hinton, I urge you to book seats now at the Watermill Theatre (box office 01635 46044).

PS The Watermill serves food as excellent as its productions, so book into their restaurant too.
John Hutchings