Outward Bound

"Seven passengers meet in the saloon bar of a ship as it sets sail from an unidentified English port. Socialite Mrs Cliveden-Banks is on her way to join her husband, a Colonel in the army; Mr Lingley has important business in Marseilles; charlady Mrs Midget is making her first passage by sea; Reverend William Duke is looking forward to a holiday, while Tom Prior intends to spend the journey in the ship's saloon bar. Also on board are Henry and Ann, a young couple who seem anxious for the ship to leave port. But the travellers have more in common than they dare to suspect. Out at sea, an eerie calm settles over the ship as Tom is the first to discover the fate which awaits his fellow passengers..."

One of the biggest hits of the West End and Broadway in the 1920s and made into a film – twice – Outward Bound is a play about fantasy, escapism, retribution, love, class-war, snobbery, religion and the ultimate judgement day. As the on-board passengers come to realise their position, their fate for the next life is dealt out one by one as a result to the lives they lived. A stunning design by Alex Marker wraps around the assembled mix-bag of society; evoking a first class 1920s luxury liner. Played in the round, director Louise Hill – no stranger to the Finborough – keeps the action moving and creates the right dynamic as each episode explodes.

There are fine performances: the ever-attentive Scrubby (David Brett), a well-studied and beautifully piously-controlled Rev. William Duke (Paul Westwood) ... burgeoning guilt from the ever-excellent Natalie Walter as Ann and her heart-wrenchingly guilt-ridden partner Adam played by the very 20s-looking Tom Davey. Mrs Midget (Ursala Mohan)captures the soul of the show with a fine and balanced portrayal of a woman who has given all and received nothing. Her gift will come in the after-life and I could feel the approval of the entire audience as her final journey was delivered. Nicholas Karimi as the edgy and drunken Tom Prior showed all the signs of a life wasted and a life yet to be lived; holding things together while, himself, falling apart. On the edge of delivering social-type-stock-characters were Carmen Rodriguez (Mrs Cliveden-Banks) and Mr Lingley (Derek Howard). Ms Rodrigues and Mr Howard really do need to get on top on their lines as the first scene nearly fell apart with subsequent scenes tripping and dodgey to say the least! The two actors were clearly not on top of their lines or their moments. A real shame. The rev. Frank Thompson (Martin Winbush) sweeps in at the very end to award life's penalties and rewards. Thompson needed more presence to be this laid back, yet he passed through the liner and exacted each onward journey with no-nonsense functionality.

Outward Bound is a wonderful story beautifully realised in the world created by a stunning design at the Finborough. Yet again, Neil McPherson has unearthed a little gem of a play that caught the international imagination in the 1920s and now fuels and provokes ours in 2012. A delightful play made for a delightful evening.