The Fall of the House of Usherettes

By Robert Iles - 20th Sep 2005

Set in an old, old, Empire cinema run by three very strange usherettes and their brother this is a saga and a tale reminiscent at times of "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom". In this case, our greedy hero is after some very rare liquid film, but the usherettes have seen off his like before, trapping them in loops of film from which they can never escape. Can this hero escape? Can he save the liquid film andmake his fortune? Will the usherettes win?

The set is a revolve and full of many tricks to delight and amuse. There is a lot of intermixing of live and film action which (mostly) works well. The programme is a delight, a comicbook version of the entire play, an excellent piece of work. The acting is enthusiastic and fast paced.

But ....

Sorry guys, I just don't get it. This is a half hour show stretched to 90 minutes with the gags and mechanisms in control rather than the acting or the story. Most of the audience laughed much of the time but this really is a rather good idea that has outgrown itself.

Robert Iles