Review: No Picnic - Tabard Theatre, Chiswick

NO PICNIC

TABARD THEATRE

Thursday 22nd March: Well, this was a weird one! Invited to a picnic in the woods, Alfie, Ludovic and Julius are three teddy bears who witness a disturbing incident - an autoerotic asphyxiation workshop! It goes terribly wrong and the bears are scared as to what is going to happen to them. In an unreal world that meets reality, the teddy bears who cannot lie and a weird doll that can, embark on a precarious journey to save their skins. And I kid you not... it's just... odd!

The set consists of a big book, it's pages are revealed as the backdrop to the scenes, a cliff top, the weird dolls house, a dungeon type of affair and so on. Not a great deal to look at, but it sets the scenes.
The costumes are odd too, patchwork teddy bears and baby arms coming out of the back of the dolls costume, adds to the weirdness of the whole show.

Greta (Helen Russell Clark), Ludovic (Dan Frost),

Julius (James Sygrove)

There's not an awful lot I can say about this production, Rhys King stands out as the Clown, his mannerisms and character are beautifully daunting yet charming.
Dan Frost (Ludovic) and James Sygrove (Julius) are OK to watch as the bungling bears who cannot lie, but Helen Russell-Clark's character (Greta) is somewhat of a disappointment to watch, at times rather cringeworthy with the lacklustre script.

For me though, it seems too long at 90 minutes straight through with no interval. There is a lack of pace to No Picnic which tends to make it drag in places.

Overall, it needs to pick up pace, or put a quick interval in there so the audience can stretch their legs and think about what is happening. I won't be going down to the woods for a while as there is definitely no surprise, this is really no picnic.

Listings information

No Picnic

Tabard Theatre

2 Bath Road

London

W4 1LW

Box Office:

0208 995 6035

info@tabardtheatre.co.uk

Tuesday March 20 - Saturday April 7

press night: Thursday March 22 at 7.30pm

Tuesday - Saturday at 7.30pm