Directed by Brian and May Hinselwood
Written by Sandi Toksvig
Naughty Humour from the Devilish Dane!
I brought my whole family along to see Sandi Toksvig’s Silver Lining, as we are all massive fans of the humour of the devilish Danish dame of QI and The Great British Bake-off fame. We were not disappointed, despite the morbid topic of “waiting for god” in a decrepit retirement home in Gravesend of all places, the location being a constant reminder of where you would be soon heading!
Five “mature” women realise they have been abandoned on the first floor of the day room of the Silver Retirement Home, whilst the other residents have been evacuated due to an impending flood caused by an epic storm of Queensland proportions. Help finally arrives in the form of a casual social worker, Hope (Ama Appiah-Brenya), who weathers the storm to help evacuate them, but further help does not arrive and they accept that they are all trapped together. Eventually, after much discussion and arguments, they band together as “Sisters doing it for themselves” and plan their “Great Escape” in a makeshift boat.
Despite a presumed elderly target audience, we thoroughly relished the notion of “oldies” behaving badly, as they cursed and taunted each other. The aged ladies soon discover they are not the stereotyped old biddies when confronted by a visit from an opportunistic thief (Lewis Ziebarth). With their realisation of impeding doom, May (Penny Murphy), a liberal lesbian, fashions a radio from a pencil and a megaphone, whilst Gloria (Julie Moran), the vivacious outspoken cockney, helps build a boat for their escape. Numerous water bottles, were gathered in the buff by the ageing June (Barbara de Bont), from the flood waters, to provide the buoyancy. Even the balance and structure was calculated using the Archimedes principle which was secreted in the dementia-addled memory of St Michael (Lea Greenaway). Meanwhile Maureen, the hypochondriac actor, played by Marion Jones in a reserved manner, busies herself making everyone a hat!
Fortunately, the naughty of humour of the Toksvig tot, renowned for her sharp wit and diminutive stature, countered the depressing notion of the tolling bell until the final scene, which was filled with contrived and laboured inner-monologues and not enough humour. My eleven year-old son spent the whole of the first half giggling and almost spilled off his chair when it was revealed that the sexually deprived and depraved octogenarian, St Michael, was clutching a treasured case full of vibrators. He also learned a few choice new words, and then as an added bonus, he memorised the signing for each naughty word with the aid of the Friday night AUSLAN signers. He now has the treasured gift of secretly being able to tell people to reproductively remove themselves!
The Centenary Theatre Group’s production of Silver Linings was well executed and well received, with nice touches such as the storm-themed popular music playing beforehand and at the interval. An inclusion of a picture of Michael Fish, a famous BBC meteorologist in the program was also a nice touch, but the sentiment plus a lot of POM-centric jokes will have shot over most of the Aussie audience’s heads like a fast bowl from Freddie Trueman!
11th May-June 1st, 2019
Centenary Theatre, Chelmer
Dr Gemma Regan