Review: Moonlight and Magnolias at Putney Arts Centre

4 STARS. Harriet Noble enjoys an evening of thought provoking farce at Putney's Arts Centre as the Putney Theatre Company perform Ron Hutchinson's Moonlight and Magnolias

PAT_WebHomepageBanner_MoonlightMagnolias.59bf666f32f0e27ae7f9fca1651e22cc17.jpg

Three egos – a producer, a screenwriter and a director all locked in an office for five days with the job of writing the screenplay for Gone with the Wind. Surviving on just bananas and peanuts. This is the premise for Ron Hutchinson’s adrenaline-filled farce ‘Moonlight and Magnolias’ performed by Putney Theatre Company.

Producer David O. Selznick (played by Ben Grafton) has halted production on Gone with the Wind as he is unhappy with the script and so he ropes in screenwriter Ben Hecht (played by Edward Tout) to write it. The only problem is, Ben hasn’t read the book. With the deadline looming, David and reluctantly hired director Victor Fleming, (played by Liam Hallinan) decide to act out the play for Ben . It is fair to say things get off to a shaky start; Ben cannot comprehend the complex narrative in this epic, tomb of a book and is certain of the plays failure saying, "No civil war movie ever made a dime." Only secretary Miss Poppeghul (played by Stevie French, sporting a bang on US accent) seems without cynicism about the project in hand.

They persevere however, and hilarity ensues as they act out various scenes from the book including giving birth, civil war, love scenes in a charade-style manner of acting. Like many a farce, the joy is in the zippy dialogue, well-timed slapstick and energy that borders on hysteria. All four actors embrace the fast-paced nature of the play and its success is due to them not dropping the ball on maintaining this energy throughout the performance. The sense of claustrophobia adds to this hysteria as the three men pace up and down the same room, sweating profusely in their 1930s suits.

Beneath the comical essence of this play lie serious issues, not least about race relations. It seems pertinent with the current issues surrounding race in the film industry today, that a play set way back in 1939 features screenwriter Ben Hecht exasperated that black characters in the film are not given a full personality or voice.

The play also touches on what it means to be Jewish in America at that time. David and Ben , both Jewish men, are successful in Hollywood but an underlying anxiety that they do not really belong, or aren’t seen as truly ‘American’ is ever present. These darker themes provide a perfect antidote to the comic liveliness of this piece of theatre.

As well as the notable chemistry between the actors in this production, it is not difficult to see why Hutchinson’s play remains so popular; Moonlight and Magnolias manages to be both a thoughtful and hugely entertaining play.