Love me Do

Showing at the Unity Theatre
13th - 15th September 2012

Reviewed by Jennifer Keegan

Love me do, written by David Crosby and directed by Mike Lockley focuses on the beginning of Brian Epsteins short life. We meet Epstein in his London flat as he reminisces about his life, looking back over his family life, his unsuccessful attempt at education, a fleeting army career and becoming a drop out from RADA, before he settled down into the family business, running the music department in their furniture shops. This knowledge and love of music eventually led him on to become a manger of The Beatles and then Gerry and the Pacemakers among others.

The life of Brian Epstein provided excellent material for a play as it has often been overshadowed by The Beatles success and his untimely death at only 32. With an interesting early life that could have been explored, the material was all there for this to be a wonderful production. Unfortunately, this opportunity was not seized, and the minute the play started, so did the audiences disappointment. Eddie Fortune played Epstein, and whilst there was an uncanny resemblance in facial features, the fact that he did not project his voice loud enough to be heard in the small theatre, led to frustrations from the audience. Fortune had obviously done his homework but in trying so hard to capture Epsteins character, the strained mannerisms appeared too forced. Fortune wasn’t the only actor that couldn’t be heard, but as throughout the two hour play he was hardly off the stage, his was the voice that the audience needed to hear.

The rest of the cast bordered on forgettable, with the exception of Mike Lockley who captured a disappointed and frustrated father perfectly. The scenes were far too brief and most should have been edited out long before opening night. The play relied heavily on the use of a big screen to tell the story, which would have been fine had the projections been timed better; for example when letters from and to Epstein were put up, there wasn’t enough time to read them before they were taken down again, and when a music medley was played, the screen and music were totally out of sync with each other. The only saving grace was a great soundtrack with a quick trip down memory lane for many of the audience members with a medley of 60s hits.

Printer friendly page

Sorry Comments Closed