"I Am A Camera" by John Van Druten

Bonington Players

The Bonington Theatre, Arnold.

Yet another new play, to me anyway. The story serves as the inspiration for the musical "Cabaret", and once you've seen this play, you can see exactly where the storyline evolves. Adapted from a play based on the book "Goodbye To Berlin" and the memoirs of writer Christopher Isherwood called The Berlin Stories.

It tells the story of a young Christopher Isherwood and his struggle to follow up his previously published novel as he lives in 1930s Germany. He has kept himself hidden away, while trying to write the follow up, in a flat that he cannot afford. Isherwood asks his landlady Fraulein Schneider if he can move into a smaller room. When Isherwood’s friend Fritz visits him, he brings along showgirl Sally Bowles, who hinds out that Christopher’s room is now up for rent and decides to move in, culminating in a friendship between the two. It sparks Isherwood’s writing and he starts looking at the people around him, or as he puts it so elegantly, “I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking.”

As the show progresses, Isherwood’s routine is interrupted by the people he has come to observe, from his promiscuous new best friend sending him on a whirlwind, dropping bombshells and bringing an American called Clive into his life, bringing empty promises of showing them the world. His once wonderful landlady has become hateful towards Jews, making Isherwood angry that the Nazis have changed her so much. Isherwood’s newly revealed Jewish friend Fritz starts falling in love with Christopher’s Jewish English student Natalia, who fails to be scared by the Nazis and stands up to them at a street rally.

Jennifer Chatten plays Sally Bowles, and I know that she was nervous leading up to the curtain up, which may have resulted in a couple of forgotten lines that needed a prompt. It's a long play and, being one of the main characters, there's a lot of script to learn. That said I soon forgot I was watching Jen and Sally took over. An iconic musical theatre role, and this story really tells of the real Sally Bowles, and Jen smashed the role.

Chris Isherwood is played by Alex Brimelow, who I've also seen in several productions before, so knew that I could just settle back into my scene and let him confidently deliver this role with great aplomb and smoothness; both attributes I've come to expect from Alex.

Fraulein Schneider is played by Lindsey Hemingway. It's really difficult to pick a favourite character in "Camera" but Fraulein Schneider would be there, if I had to choose. Lindsey moves from being someone who could not do enough for her guests to not doing anything above the basics for them, when she discovered that Chris and Sally were moving out of their apartments. Both of Schneider's faces were delivered with wonderful comedy, albeit subtly by Lindsey, and her description and mini monologue about bosoms in Act One was brilliantly funny, and set out the character form that moment. Another wonderfully delivered piece of character acting with shades of Victoria Wood's Mrs Overall.

Fritz Wendel is played by Trev Clarke, and again another light and shade character which allows us to see the different sides of an actor. The Act One Fritz, very eager to woo and quite excitable is in contrast to later on when he receives a letter and reveals what is troubling him.

Clive Mortimer is played by Eddie Januszczyk. A lovely ever so slightly over the top American, but I imagine slightly over the top is just how this character should be played. Promising everything and delivering nothing and throwing his cash around to impress Sally and Chris. For an American though, he sure gets tipsy fast! Eddie is another actor who I've had the pleasure of seeing before and again shows that his character acting is second to none.

Natalia Landauer is played by Charlotte Hukin, another actor who I always know I can rely on to deliver a wonderful performance, as she does here.

Zoe Lander plays Sally's mother, Mrs Watson-Courtenidge, who has come to see what's happening in Sally's life in Berlin after Sally had written that she was engaged to Chris. This character is very similar to a certain mother/daughter pairing in "The Importance Of Being Earnest". Sally, slightly under the rule of her mother, which could also explain why Sally wanted to be just a bit wilder.

All of these actors excel at character acting, and you can believe in the character on stage and not the actor themselves. Not only that but all of the accents, the very English Sally, Frau Schneider's soft German, Fritz's quasi-German/Jewish, Clive's American accents are delivered very naturally without the need to exaggerate the accent, and this added to the believability of the characters.

I loved the timing in this play, especially when there was a comment made about Germans and Jews being the same, Isherwood was opening a bottle of fizzy stuff and Alex got the cork to pop right at the exact moment, sending the cork high into the air. Marvellous stuff.

Directed by George Lamb, he coaxed out every comic moment and kept the pace going, and by doing this, you noticed when any actor was waiting for a prompt because of a longer than expected gap. He kept it fun, light and character driven, and of course, having the best cast for the roles also helped.

Sound Design, operated by Karen James, and Lighting Design, operated by Peter Hodgkinson, was by David Goatham, both excellently done.

The Set Design by Tony Tomlinson was, as I've come to expect from Bonington Players, immaculate. I loved the attention to detail and the era relevant furniture and props. It showed a large apartment in 1930 in Berlin which I'd have been happy to reside in.

Loved the costumes by Anna Hodkin and Teresa Smith.

A longer than average play at two hours and forty minutes with interval, but worth the entrance fee for the quality of this production and cast.

What I also loved about this story and the production was that even though it told of the atrocities of racism, there was always that sense of humour to counter the serious message.

"I Am A Camera" is at Bonington Theatre in Arnold until Saturday 15 October.