Humble Boy

by Charlotte Jones
The Dukes, Lancaster
Thu 8 - Sat 31 March 2007
Reviewed by Jane Sunderland

The description on the programme of Charlotte Jones’ Humble Boy as a ‘heartfelt family comedy’ belies the freshness of this play, and indeed the fact that it is as much about death and immortality as anything else.

Directed by Gary Sefton and designed by Karen McKeown, it is the story of the inaptly-named Felix (Mike Goodenough) (more aptly surnamed Humble) and his attempt to come to terms with his mother, with paternity (his father and his own child with Rosie - Jane Cameron), and with his investigation as an astrophysicist into Unified Field Theory (yes, this is real astrophysics).

Interwoven with all this are echoes of Hamlet - his newly-widowed mother Flora (Jane Maud) is all set to marry long-term Glenn Miller-loving lover George (Robert Whelan) - and of Greek tragedy, which we can take or leave, and the motif of bees, which we cannot, the bee colony’s advanced functionalism contrasting with this dysfunctional family. If this is a comedy, it is also one full of big ideas, though the coherence of these ideas is not always apparent.

The set is beautiful – a Cotswold walled garden in what Flora refers to as ‘Morton-in-the-Mud’, maintained by a mysterious philosopher-scientist-gardener (Will Tacey). This is so inviting that my daughter’s first response while getting seated was that she wanted to run onto the stage and up the steps … which lead up to the beehive.

At the start of the play the bees are carefully, dramatically taken from the hive by beekeepers who look and behave oddly like astronauts: an early hint of the Theory of Everything which preoccupies Felix.

Tottering on stilettos to be like Flora, Roberta Kerr is memorable as Mercy, the well-meaning eternal peacemaker; most memorable is her delivery of grace at the al fresco dinner party, which becomes a wonderfully funny extended monologue, followed by her realisation that she has unknowingly just flavoured the gazpacho with substantial amounts of Jim Humble’s ashes. But the real tour de force is Mike Goodenough who delivers the lines of this unusual and troubled character with a sincerity, conviction and naturalness that makes you realise what you are missing in many other productions.

© Jane Sunderland 8/3/07

Times and prices:
Tues - Thu, 7.30 pm £13.50 (concs £9.50).
Fri & Sat, 8 pm £15.50 (concs £11.50).
Matinees on Thu 15 & Sat 22 March: £8 (concs £6).
Tues 13 March, 7.30 pm Pay What You Can

Links to other reviews:
Online Review London.Com
London Theatre / Tom Keating
London Theatre / Amanda Hodges
BBC / Nottingham / Stage / 2003
The Observer
www.compulink.co.uk/~shutters/reviews/02032.htm
www.compulink.co.uk/~shutters/reviews/02080.htm

Information on Charlotte Jones’ plays:
www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsJ/jones-charlotte.html

Information about bees:
www.thefarm.org/charities/i4at/lib2/bees.htm