Green Forms

Green Forms
Maddermarket Theatre, Norwich

Review published in Eastern Daily Press, 14 October 2014

Play about bureaucracy is funny and bitter-sweet

Special lunchtime performances at the Maddermarket are a great idea. Green Forms is a clever, funny, bitter-sweet hour’s comedy from the mighty pen and sharp wit of Alan Bennett.

Add in the combined acting talents of Dawn Brindle, Judi Daykin and John Mangan and there is all we need for a wonderful piece of fun to enliven a wet day in the city.

It is a satire on offices, managements, bureaucracies, redundancies and mindsets of the 1980s, before computers took over the world and manual typewriters became history.

The verbal sparring between the two perfectly matched women was masterful, the pace relentless. He is the one-armed caretaker-cum factotum with a possibly unintentional cruelty in his flippancy.

The pointed humour lies in both setting and accurately observed characters wearing their baggage and neuroses like clothes. Neither a single word word nor a gesture are wasted.

The little digs at each other, the vulnerabilities and sick dread of being sacked from an organisation that is almost as incomprehensible as something from Kafka are tangible, real, credible and resonant. Warmly recommended.