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Jazz experiment is a
little off key
CHASING THE MOMENT
Arcola Theatre
JACK Shepherd – you’ll know him as Wycliffe off the telly – wrote and stars in this play which makes a noble attempt to compare the vicissitudes of life with jazz – do you live on the edge, improvising as you go along not knowing where the next note’s coming from, or play safe melodies everybody likes?
The concept is great. It centres on four-piece band playing in a dingy basement bar. Some of the audience sit on tables around a small stage as if they are in the club.
The band set up in the first half, play during the interval, and pack up in the second half. There is plenty of good musical banter.
An old criticism of jazz, however, is that as it evolved from the joyous life-affirming rhythms of New Orleans in the early 20th century it ended up becoming the self-obsessed noodlings of musicians who forgot they had an audience to entertain.
You could argue that in trying to emulate this slippery genre, Shepherd has erred on the noodling side.
Each of the characters brings weighty psychological and political baggage which they reveal through long, at times tedious, monologues.
They each have their turn, which might reflect the solos beloved of jazz musicians, but doesn’t make for great theatre.
Ironically, the most engaging characters don’t appear. There is Wes, the Cuban-heeled medallion-wearing Carribean club owner who is in intensive care after a heart attack, and the fundamentalist preacher father of drummer Tony, who rules his family with an iron hand and fails to show up to the gig.
The father is also Caribbean, and this opened up an intriguing, but only partially explored, avenue of the immigrant experience in Britain.
It couldn’t be followed, though, because there was already too much going on. Shepherd likes his political theatre, but this is ladled on a bit too thick. All that said, the two hours and 15 minutes pass quickly enough. Jim Bywater as Harry is fantastic, adding some much-needed comic relief with his old jazz-cat character and providing some of the play’s best moments both comedically and dramatically.
Helen Anderson as Wes’s partner Joanne also stands out in a strong cast.
020 7503 1646
Until Feb 24
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