Oxford Playhouse

Thursday 4th March; 7.30pm

“Unfortunately, most of the music was plodding and pedestrian, the singing at times painful and the lyrics twee , with some notable exceptions (the first and last time you’ll hear ‘fluorescence’ rhymed with ‘tumescence’).” Henry Donati ★★★★★

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Forever In Your Debt ★★★★★

Review by Henry Donati

It must be a rather dispiriting experience touring regional theatres; the theatrical equivalent of the straight to DVD movie.  The future destinations for the Foursight Theatre Company’s Forever in Your Debt include the towns of Margate, Kendal and Barnsley, and the audiences there I fear will be somewhat like those at the Oxford Playhouse – three quarters empty, the remainder of the seats filled by the blue-rinse brigade on their annual theatre trip. Unfortunately, I think they should have gone to see Dick Whittington again.

I would like to be able to describe this play as edgy, inventive and witty, an arresting piece of musical devised theatre which explores the human consequences of debt. Unfortunately it wasn’t any of these things. In fact, I just couldn’t work out who would actually like it. The script was far too clichéd, the ‘insights’ too hackneyed for this to appeal to anyone who’s seen brilliant investigative theatre companies like The Civilians of which this production is a pale impersonation. Most of the oldies in the audience were probably lost from the garbled beginning, and those who weren’t, were disapprovingly shaking their bouffants shortly afterwards, when a rather gratuitous “s word” was used. When a painful hour had come and gone and there was still no sign of an interval, several of them had to make a dash for it and ‘spend a penny’; I’d be lying if I’d said I wasn’t tempted to join them. For those left without enlarged prostates or a love of theatre, there was a hope they might at least enjoy the songs. Unfortunately, most of the music was plodding and pedestrian, the singing at times painful and the lyrics twee , with some notable exceptions (the first and last time you’ll hear ‘fluorescence’ rhymed with ‘tumescence’). I really didn’t mean to sound so rude – it can’t be much fun motivating yourself for tomorrow’s unfilled auditorium in Wolverhampton – but as the grannies shuffled back onto their coach and I cycled my way back home, in our own ways I think we were all equally disappointed.