Review: Quartet at The Rep

Ronald Harwood has a stage track record as long as the Number 11 bus route. He bangs out plays and movies like no one’s business.

One of  his most successful, now on at The Birmingham Rep, is Quartet -  as comfy a comic play as those old pair of shoes you just can’t throw away.

Four retired opera singers are sequestered away in an old folks’ home and, despite their differences, try for one more performance together. The seventh age of man might be about ‘...second childishness and mere oblivion’ (said a certain  Warwickshire writer) but these old thesps refuse to accept the dying of the light.

There’s laughs, tears, the whole range of emotions from broken hearts to fading memories to a quiver full of  one-line zingers about old age. Harwood is a tried and true playwright who knows how to put on two hours of good theatre. And The Rep audience, who I have to say reflects the demographics of the production, gobbled it up.

Yes, Quartet is a bit creaky, old fashioned, with a predictable plot about four lives and how they cope and refuse to cope with the last lap. But it works. Old war horse Paul Nicholas (Tommy, Stardust)  is the randy old salt, Jeff Rawle (Drop the Dead Donkey) the forlorn broken hearted pal, Sue Holderness (The New Avengers) is the brittle ex-prima donna  and Wendi Peters (Coronation Street) is the forgetful old dear who provides the commendable slapstick. Four veteran actors, in fact, playing ageing actors. Hmmmm.

It’s on 'til 10th March. And yes, there’s a loo-break for those that need to spend a penny. Tickets