State Fair, Finborough Theatre

Our State Fair is the First State Fair

4 stars

Above the Earl’s Courters’ local pub, The Finborough, is the tiny like-named theatre. Its intimate charm and quirkiness are hard to resist, with a note on the backstage toilet summing it up: Please Do Not Flush During A Performance. Indeed, nothing at all goes unnoticed in a dramatic space as tiny as this is, and it takes a brave actor to perform there, let alone sing and dance with abandon.

Yet the energetic cast of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s State Fair do just that, and it’s absolutely thrilling. The musical, directed here by Thom Southerland, makes its European premiere, in spite of the success of many other Rodgers and Hammersteins’ musicals over here. While it may feel like a tale from down on the farm, which can only apply to people down on the farm, in fact State Fair undoubtedly has elements of the universal, and is self-mocking in its quaintness. We see the smugly confident annual pickles winner and we learn of the fertiliser display in the adjacent tent. In many ways, this is the Archers transferred to Iowa. The universal, though, comes from the fact that it’s about people doing what they love – what they’re passionate about – as the show’s heroine, Margy Frake, says. For the people of Iowa, the State Fair is the most important thing in the world – hence, the arch rivalry that develops amongst pickle-makers and pig-raisers.

Margy (played with beautiful delicacy and sincerity by Laura Main) is engaged to the goofy Harry (Gareth Nash), but doesn’t particularly fall for his promise of an air-conditioned, sanitary home and his lack of brains. Instead, she falls for the sweet-talking, yet vulnerable, upstart journalist, Pat Gilbert (played by David Botham) who, needless to say, also falls for her. Meanwhile, Margy’s big brother, Wayne, is busy falling in love with the seductive State Fair performer, Emily Arden (a great performance by Kellie Shirley, who brings out the character’s tarnished optimism beautifully). He takes a trip to the moon with her, but then comes back down with an eye-opening bump. At the heart of this musical, however, are the ageing, but passionately in love, Frake parents, Abel and Mellisa (Philip Rham and Susan Travers) who share some tender moments and, in particular, the beautiful ballad ‘Boys and Girls Like You and Me’.

There is some hilarious and creative ensemble work, as actors double up parts seamlessly, tearing on in a variety of get-ups. The Finborough’s small stage pulses with energy as, at every occasion, the cast throw themselves into every number. The choreography is necessarily simple, but effective, and Magnus Gilljam provides a perfect accompaniment to the musical score on the piano. A notable highlight is the company’s opening of Act II, ‘All I Owe Ioway’ which has an ‘O.K.L.A.H.O.M.A!’ feel to it in the song’s witty buoyancy and foot-stamping gaiety. The principals’ singing is impressive, even more so through being unamplified, with Laura Main and Philip Rham standing out as giving particularly sensitive musical performances.

The action is framed by an elegantly simple set – a colourful archway lined with fairground lights – and the confined space contributes to the sense of Iowa, and its annual fair, as an oppressively small place in which the Frake family have their roots firmly planted, and through which the more adventurous and ambitious people come, but inevitably must go.

What a joy to watch a musical that, though not new, is unfamiliar to most, and is performed with such commitment from a cast in one of the smallest, (hottest) and most exciting venues in town. Whether State Fair has enough clout musically and dramatically to warrant a transfer is debatable, but this is certainly an unmissable experience while it lasts.

Anna Brewer : 16 Aug 2009 22:49 |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem