THEATRE REVIEW: Stags & Hens The Remix, Liverpool Royal Court

Feb 6 2008 by Peter Grant, Liverpool Daily Post

Liverpool playwright Willy Russell _320

NOSTALGIA ain’t what it used to be. Photographs fade and memories become air-brushed. We are all left with what might have been.

Willy Russell’s re-mix of his own classic drama proved he really is a playwright for all seasons.

He tweaked 75 per cent of the original. The happy, entertaining fact is – it hasn’t dated.

A Liverpool nightclub in 1977 is the focal point for two tribes going to war.

Five girls out on the town; five lads out, too, drinking and dancing aimlessly in the same dingy club.

The stage is split into an upper balcony disco entrance where the music of Leo Sayer and Abba blurt out while in the toilets the girls make up – and fall out.

Linda is having her hen party. Dave is not staggering but totally out the game.

The first half is full of the early evening false bonhomie of nights out that many of the audience relate to.

Part two is livelier and sobering.

Linda meets old flame Peter booked to do a gig. She could have gone with him once but she didn’t. She was that close . . .

There are faultless performances all around in this brilliantly executed ensemble piece courtesy of director Bob Eaton and assistant director Eithne Brown.

Maureen (Keddy Sutton) is a real joy just like Su Pollard on acid and Billy, played by Lenny Wood, was another of those characters we’ve all met that Willy Russell paints so well.

Stags & Hens is 30 years old.The Royal Court is 70.

This is a marriage in theatrical heaven.