Celebrating not such good times in TTC triumph

10:01am Monday 7th April 2008

Why is Michael so foul-mouthed and bad tempered? Why has Christian become clinically withdrawn? What drove their sister to her untimely death?

In David Eldridge's stage adaptation of Danish director Thomas Vinterberg's 1998 film, Festen, the fragile carapace of a wealthy family's respectability is smashed to reveal a shocking secret.

Teddington Theatre Club brought together a constellation of its finest actors and well crafted directing by Sally Halsey to tackle this dark and raw play and, with an uneasy energy, succeeded in bringing it from the intimacy of the screen to the broad stage of Hampton Hill Playhouse.

Into the formal glass-tapping toasts at the patriarch's 60th birthday celebrations, Christian, played with brooding edginess by David Brickwood, drops a bombshell, accusing his father of raping both him and his twin sister as children.

The reaction of the father, Helge, in an imperiously sardonic portrait by Charles Halford, is disdainfully dismissive, while the guests initially revert to their customary boisterous songs. However, propriety must be maintained, and they fall back to long painful silences in which all that can be heard is the tense click of cutlery on plates.

The belligerent Michael, in a strong performance by Ashley Munson, blows his short fuse in a fight with his elder sister Helene's exotic boyfriend Gbatokai, played with bemused tolerance by Dennis Ducane. Amanda-Jade Tyler's spirited Helene was drawn as inwardly troubled. When the below stairs backing of dipsomaniacal chef (David Dadswell) and lithesome maid (Angela Francis) encourage Christian to pursue his indictments, it even tests the glacial poise of their mother Else, a taut and haughty portrait by Mandy Stenhouse.

The varied effects on the other guests is a study of humankind, exemplary acting included Chris Hurles' Poul, arisen from his precious depression by Schadenfreude, Jim Tickle's thankfully gaga grandfather and Sophie Andrews' little girl, clear innocence.

Bringing together two taboos of incest and paedophilia in one play requires great courage, but the company's sensitive handling provided an insight into perversion and its perception.

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