Review: Heroes, Rowntree Players, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, until tomorrow (From York Press)

Review: Heroes, Rowntree Players, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, until tomorrow

10:11am Friday 2nd October 2009 in

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AMATEUR dramatics societies often keep everyone on-side with large casts, but Rowntree Players director Andy Love bravely chooses a three- hander.

A three-hander, what’s more, with a cast that wholly justifies his selection policy.

Graham Bilton, Martyn Hunter and Players debutant (but experienced York thespian) Richard Easterbrook ably step into the venerable shoes of Ken Stott, John Hurt and Richard Griffiths, the trio entrusted with the West End premiere of Tom Stoppard’s witty translation of Gerald Sebelyras’s poignant French play The Wind In The Poplars.

On the retirement-home terrace they have commandeered with only a spaniel statue for company, First World War veterans Gustav (Hunter), Phillipe (Bilton) and Henri (Easterbrook) go about their slow daily routine of reminiscences and increasingly desperate thoughts of escape, on the eve of 1960.

Hunter’s smart-suited dreamer Gustav is never as relaxed as his plimsolls would suggest. Always asserting himself as the leader, he nevertheless suffers agoraphobia, ultimately confining his fantasies of freedom to reading Phillipe’s letters.

Bilton is as affable as he is in the Rowntree pantos, while Easterbrook’s Henri, in plus fours, is a jaunty, twinkling old boy with a naughty eye for schoolgirls.

Like Yazmina Reza’s not-dissimilar Art, Heroes has transferred most efficaciously into English while retaining French names to go with the geriatric bickering banter. Its leisurely air yet constant, sometimes feverish planning puts you in mind of Three Men In A Boat and Last Of The Summer Wine; its desperation and lulls echo Waiting For Godot.

Gentle pleasures await you.

Heroes, Rowntree Players, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, until tomorrow.

Box office: 01904 416751/623568.