With accents and body language that would not have been out of place on payday in Wapping High Street, the Other Theatre Company brought an authentic flavour of the late nineteenth century East End of London to Cheshire in their Autumn Production of ‘Jack the Ripper’. To this effective ghoulish costumes and lighting added the necessary macabre atmosphere of the area and the topic. The use of a blood red silhouette on a sidewall was particularly effective in reproducing much of the Ripper’s work. Where his work was enacted on stage the large knife and blood curdling screams induced in the audience a similar chilling effect to that achieved in Hitchcock’s movie Psycho not that the audience minded too much. One member even intimated that he would have been happy to have had a few more murders if that extended the show and hence his enjoyment.
Particularly impressive was the choreography of the crowd routines, in which all the cast participated. This made full use of the Plumley Parish Hall theatre-in-the-rectangle and meant the actors performing cheek by jowl with their audience to, I suspect, the pleasure of both. Given the overall quality of the acting it is perhaps invidious to select out individuals but mention must be made of Harry Sanger playing Daniel Mendoza, the insufferable archetypal cheeky cockney to a tee and Mike Finnigan as the florid police sergeant. Harry Kennedy playing the Chairman and Sir Charles Warren carried over his act of the epitome of pontification from his performance as the Bishop in the Other Theatre’s previous production, Marriage Rites. Without giving offence, the female members of the cast, lead by Sarah Sherwood as Marie Kelly exhibited a convincing busty tartiness necessary for their parts.
The accompaniment was provided by a trio of piano, guitar and percussion, which more than complemented the singing, although this suffered a little, on the final night from fatigue. However, all in all it was an excellent production and a most enjoyable evening.
Review by Stan Price
For more information about this production, please see our Past Productions page for Jack the Ripper.