Comic Potential – Play Review

When is a actor not an actor? When it’s an actoid, that’s when. Alan Ayckbourn’s Comic Potential is set in the near future when actors in TV soaps are replaced by robots. When one robot starts becoming more human than robot, a young writer falls in love and tries to make her the star of his new show and ends up on the run to stop the actoid being sent back to the factory to have its memory wiped.

The Bridewell Theatre in London played host to the Stock Exchange Dramatic and Operatic Society’s (SEDOS) performance of the play on March 7, and what a performance it was.

The show was extremely enjoyable to say the least. I wasn’t sure what to expect but what I found was a polished, well acted, funny and all round good night out.

As in any play, it relies on it’s leads to carry the show. The actoid who comes to life, Jacie Triplethree, is played by Sarah Boyes and she gave a fantastic performance. The role involves a huge range of emotions, accents and physicality and she made it all look effortless. Having seen amateur dramatics before, I never expected such a great performance. It’d be interesting to see her in a totally different play to see if she’s just as convincing.

And the rest of the cast seem to shine in her reflected glow. The young writer Adam (Panagiotis Skrivanos) is relaxed and confortable in his part, Peter Bryans as the jaded director Chandler Tate gives the play some weight and in the first half some nice comic moments, and Tash Wilcox as the TV channel’s regional director makes a convincing ‘bad guy’.

While the focus is on this group of leads, much of the play’s enjoyment comes from the wider cast. Occassionally I’d look at two of the other ‘actoids’ called Mother and Father (played by Charlotte Price and Andrew MacPherson) who’s job is was to sit still by the side of the stage for ten minutes or so. I stared at them for about a minute before seeing one of them slowly blink – totally in character yet the focus of the play is elsewhere. It’s little touches like that that made the show a success. Also Andy Marchant’s many roles as Marmion, man in dress shop, young man, technician and Turkey the pimp had me smiling every time he appeared.

The only negative point I can think of is that it was a shame the theatre wasn’t full and it wasn’t enjoyed by more people. The staging and direction were also well handled and I couldn’t recommend it enough.

The play is on until Saturday 10 March, catch it if you can.

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