REVIEW: Barefoot In The Park, Frinton Summer Theatre ✭✭✭

Paul T Davies reviews Neil Simon's Barefoot In The Park presented as part of the Frinton Summer Theatre Season 2023.

Barefoot in the Park.

Frinton Summer Theatre

18 July 2023

3 Stars

Frinton Summer Theatre Website

One of the many delights of the weekly rep of Frinton Summer Theatre is that you’re transported to different locations and lives week after week. Following the British royalty of Abbeys and palaces last week, now we’re in New York and Neil Simon’s first Broadway hit from 1963. Newlyweds Cora and Paul move into their unfurnished, cold New York loft six days after their wedding. He is a lawyer, plays by the rules and a bit of stuffed shirt, she is more carefree and adventurous, the kind to run barefoot in the park in winter. They are a mismatch, and after a short time plan to file for divorce, even though their Ying and Yang elements make them a perfect couple. The fascinating thing about watching plays comedy from this era is you can see the seeds of what became known as rom-com, although here it’s not so much, “Will they, won’t they?”, but more, they have-now what! The difficulty is that the societal attitudes from the Sixties now look a little uncomfortable, and I’m afraid the play creaks a bit.

It's a lively cast, with Jamie Treacher as Paul a perfect contrast to Olivia Bernstone’s Corie. They begin the play firmly establishing the characters, but in Act three I felt the passion of the arguments could have been unleashed a little, on opening night it played somewhat flat, and needed a wider range of emotions. However, it’s the subplot that provided most of the charm, with Olivia Carruthers an absolute delight as Corie’s mother, Ethel, uptight, trying not to be critical. The upstairs neighbour, Victor Velasco, appears quite creepy at first, especially when Corie decides the perfect solution is to set him up on a blind date with her mother! Strangely, this works really well, mainly because of the interplay between the two actors-it wasn’t Simon’s intentions, but their story is the real “Will they? Won't they?” William Meredith bookends the production perfectly as the cynical, wise-cracking telephone man.

I know I’ve said it before, but Sorcha Corcoran’s set is a triumph, beginning almost bare staged in Act One, transformed into the kind of New York studio apartment we all want to live in during the interval! It’s a sure-footed production, but perhaps not the strongest choice of the season, showing it’s age a little. Until Saturday July 22nd.