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Picture
REVIEW
✭✭✭✭✭ 5/5
Lee Mead Productions Limited in partnership with Chelmsford City Theatres presents
Someone Who'll Watch Over Me
by Frank McGuinness
Cramphorn Theatre, Chelmsford
Monday 10th - Saturday 15th June 7.45pm
Matinee Wed 12th and Sat 15th 2pm
INTERVIEW HERE
You know the old joke about the Englishman, Irishman and American? They all walk into a bar and...actually, let's stop right there, because in this particular scenario there is no bar and it is certainly no joke.

Irish dramatist, Frank McGuinness, was inspired to write Someone Who'll Watch Over Me by Irishman, Brian Keenan, who was kidnapped and taken hostage during the Lebanon crisis which took place between 1982 and 1992.  The play introduces us to Adam, the American hostage played by Lee Mead, Edward, the Irishman played by David Streames and Englishman, Michael, played by Richard Foster.

The three strangers are held captive within the four walls of their bleak and dirty cell, losing count of the days and not knowing whether it is night or day.  Their different backgrounds give rise to petty arguments but throughout they help each other to survive the hopelessness of the situation during their darkest of days of not knowing just how long they will incarcerated or, indeed, whether they will even survive at all.

The subject matter is without question no joke, and you may be forgiven into thinking that Someone Who'll Watch Over Me could be a horribly depressing play.  This, however, couldn't be further from the truth, as interwoven between the chunks of despair, McGuinness has injected enough wit and humour into the piece to gravitate it to another level but with the balance never quite evening out to allow you to become complacent.  This is a play which explores human emotions and the instinct to survive under the worst imaginable circumstances.

Streames as journalist Edward, the no nonsense antagonist of the trio, puts in an impressive performance as the Irishman who can irritate yet also be a comfort his fellow captives in equal measure.  His playful imagination gives them all a platform to relive memories and moments of their lives that they can share with each other.  Mead's portrayal of the gentle and kind American, Adam, is warm and compassionate and you really feel for this young doctor who still has so much to give, not just for himself but to society and his yearning to be set free from the hell he finds himself in.  Foster as the quintessential British English lecturer, who loves language almost as much as he loves his mother, is the hostage who's internment takes the biggest journey.  From his initial horror at being imprisoned, after simply setting out that morning for pears, for a flan he was making, at the local market to the joining in on writing imaginary letters home with the others and to the acceptance of his situation with an extremely funny re-creation of the 1977 Wimbledon Ladies Final between Virginia Wade and Betty Stove.  Foster's performance was both endearing and heartwarming and you find yourself longing for this sweet man to be allowed to go free.  All three actors work incredibly well together and just in case you were wondering, yes, you will get to hear Lee Mead sing; Amazing Grace sung in Act 1 is delivered with heartbreaking poignancy.

This is a wonderfully put together collaboration by Lee Mead Productions Limited and Chelmsford City Theatres as an 'in house' production and an inspiring piece of theatre. Set design and construction by Alicia Fowles is beautifully enhanced by the expert lighting of Chris May which very subtly alters to show the reality and absurdity of each scenario to great effect.  Scene changes are hauntingly darkened to the sounds of original music written by Lee Kavanagh where you are left wondering whether the captives will still be there to survive another desperately bleak, dark, long and soul destroying day in their hellish surroundings, with the never ending dread that their captors could do away with either of them at any moment.  The Cramphorn's intimate studio theatre really lends itself to a play of this type.

The biggest shame of this production is that it is only playing Chelmsford for one week.  There is a whisper that it may go on to play in the West End which I feel it deserves but in the meantime there are a handful of tickets left for each performance at Chelmsford.  Don't miss your chance to see this play and these actors up close in the intimate Cramphorn Theatre.

Review: Kim Tobin
​

Please note the recommended age is 14+
Tickets: £22.00
PREMIUM seats £2.00 extra
For tickets go online to 
www.chelmsford.gov.uk

Watch this excerpt from the play which Lee, David and Richard kindly performed just for us on Monday!

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