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Higher Education
The winner of Bench Theatre's 'state of the nation' play competition, held to mark its 40th anniversary, is a powerful and often entertaining work although not without flaws.
In two hours of real-time action played without interval, writer Angela Pressland shrewdly dribbles out her revelations in such a way as to make it difficult for the reviewer to say too much about the plot without spoiling it for later audiences.
But it covers a lot of ground, including teacher/student relationships, fantasy and reality, racism, fashion and today's craving for instant gratification.
The setting is a brothel where a middle-aged man, on his nervous first visit, encounters a confident not-quite-20 woman trying to pay her way through university.
Director Jacquie Penrose and an outstanding cast negotiate some tricky waters with skill – without over-statement but with natural feeling for the big emotional sequences as well as comedy.
Above all, Roger Wallsgrove and Charmaine Barker give the principal characters a fine mixture of anger and compassion – and it is arguably the sense of compassion that runs most potently through the play.
Melanie Cole and Callum West complete the cast.
Until Saturday.
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Weather for Portsmouth
Wednesday 23 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 14 C to 20 C
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Sunny spells
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