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Vision far from impaired

On Friday, 5 March, a large audience enjoyed Richard James and Dean Laccohee’s performance of two of Richard’s one-act plays in the Commemoration Hall.

In I am Hamlet, Simon (played by Dean) supposedly auditions for the role of Hamlet in an amateur production, but his real purpose gradually becomes apparent. And unlike the Hamlet of the play, Simon has no qualms about avenging what he sees as the murder of his father.

Vision Impaired presented two actors waiting to play Daleks. Trapped inside their mechanical outfits, and abandoned on the wrong side of the studio, their vision, both of their surroundings and of the success of their careers, is definitely impaired.

Both plays were very well written, witty and thought-provoking, with a lot of laughs, particularly in Vision Impaired. I am Hamlet created plenty of suspense. Dean and Richard played two pairs of strongly contrasting characters, both physically and in personality. In the second play Dean’s working-class northerner set off Richard’s rather posh, Financial Times-reading southerner, whose greatest triumph – and last job – was doing a voiceover for a TV commercial six years before. Despite this poor track record, Richard’s character sees himself as a Great Actor. His loss of control, which had him sounding just like a Dalek, was both poignant and very entertaining.

John Morgan made an excellent job of sound and lights, which were very effective, the two spotlit chairs for Vision Impaired emphasising the unreality of the two characters’ physical and psychological situation.

Richard and Dean were both members of Huntingdon Drama Club around twenty years ago, then left for drama school. Dean rejoined us last year, and has appeared in Separate Tables and And then there were none. He also directed last summer’s Absent Friends.

Richard’s last appearance on the Commemoration Hall stage was in Any number can die, in 1988, which I directed. He has since had many of his plays performed, and our July production is of his latest, Port out, starboard home! This is a comedy set on a cruise ship, where two of the characters gain the courage to be true to their own natures and stop other people controlling them – a comedy that will give you a warm feeling inside!

Michael Black

More information on Words Apart here.

Huntingdon Drama Club