It's sometime quite soon... Jerome is a serious avant-garde composer. He`s written string quartets, a ‘cello sonata. Unfortunately, he's best known for the soundtrack of the infamous Singing Babies TV commercial. Read more …
Even worse, ever since his bank manager wife Corinna left him, taking their daughter with her, Jerome has suffered from creative block. Locked inside his fortress flat, he now lives surrounded by TV screens, computers and synthesizers, with just one companion: NAN 300F, a robot nanny who seems almost human, despite being perpetually on the blink. Well, the manufacturer did have to withdraw the entire range after that ‘unfortunate incident'...
Desperate to gain custody of his daughter, but knowing that this unconventional lifestyle is unlikely to endear him to the Department of Child Wellbeing, Jerome hires out-of-work actress Zoë to pose as his fiancée and play happy families for the benefit of Mervyn Bickerdyke, the Child Welfare Officer.
But things with Zoë go horribly wrong - just as Mervyn and Corinna are on their way to examine Jerome's stable new home environment - and Jerome is forced to improvise. You know, it's amazing what you can do with a robot, a few micro-chips and a screwdriver...
After a four year absence, Ayckbourn returns to the PFT repertoire with the Scottish première of a deliciously funny and wholly ingenious futuristic comedy.
‘Love’ is the word in Jerome’s search for musical perfection, and, perhaps, the climax is a bit predictable, but the result is an exciting piece of composing from Jon Beales.
If there is a way to make the play work – and it was lauded on its debut – [director] Alexander hasn’t found it.
Ken Alexander’s ambitious production never quite resolves some of the problems created in what is, by Ayckbourn’s standards, an unusually undisciplined and overwritten play. In the end, though, there’s no denying the disturbing power of this strange, surreal drama, or the sharpness of the questions it raises about art, love, and a certain subtle kind of partriarchy.
Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Pitlochry from Saturday June 4, 2011, until Thursday October 13, 2011. More info: www.pitlochry.org.uk
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