The stakes are high when a fragile ceasefire causes two countries to enter into peace talks. The strip of land they have been fighting over, could be any of a number of world conflict zones, but right now with Ukraine never far from anyone's mind, the scenario seems particularly prescient.Comedian Dan Patterson has contributed to former ambassador (and Middle-East-negotiator-turned-playwright) Daniel Taub's effort to bring a theatregoing audience to the negotiating table under the ever-watchful eye of broadcaster and presenter Clive Anderson who acts as moderator/narrator of WINNERS CURSE.
Jez Bond hasn't so much directed as fluidly placed his combatants in a space which is at once cramped and expansive and further served (or complicated, depending on your viewpoint) by Isobel Nicholson's onstage revolve. Mr Anderson breezed ebulliently onto the playing area to rapturous applause and promptly lost his composure and fluffed his lines for an excruciating 30 seconds on press night. After some encouraging jocularity and applause from the largely partisan audience, the old pro - who many will recall as an articulate and composed former barrister and talk show host (except perhaps when memorably confronted by a humourless troupe of Bee Gees) - gathered his composure and bumptiously blathered his way through Taub and Patterson's meticulously crafted wordplay. It was the sort of hammy display one is used to witnessing of Boris Johnson as he pretends not to be enjoying a photo-op at a pig processing plant. Oddly enough, it seemed to strike exactly the right chord.
Anderson, got-up in full evening tails, wove in and out of the on-stage story of the negotiations which took place years earlier, often alongside his gangling younger self - played with an endearingly naïve charm by Arthur Conti making his stage debut (whilst grandfather Tom looked on from the stalls). Other notable contributors included the ever excellent Michael Maloney as a sort of east European Sir Humphrey Appleby and Nichola McAuliffe as the menacingly amusing, gun-wielding landlady of the Black Lagoon Lodge located in the middle of the disputed territory, thereby securing its role as venue for the peace talks.
The script contains some cracking one-liners but much was lost in the messily choreographed set changes and under-rehearsed randomness visible on opening night. Worse still, virtually everyone was comprehensively upstaged by an audience member who clearly turned-out to be the world's expert in thumb wrestling! She demonstrated her skills and technique to brilliant effect whilst clearly annunciating the terminology and verbiage which traditionally accompanies the start of each bout. If only the other onstage contributors had been able to match her confident and word-perfect effort. As the old adage goes: Never work with animals, children... or members of the paying public!
