5/5

WHEN you think of legendary flat share duos, many come to mind.

Fletch and Godber from ‘Porridge’. Gary and Tony from ‘Men Behaving Badly’. Richie and Eddie from ‘Bottom’.

A duo who perhaps don’t come to mind are Oscar and Felix from Neil Simon’s 1966 Broadway play, ‘The Odd Couple’.

The plot concerns two mismatched roommates: the neat, uptight Felix Ungar and the slovenly, easy-going Oscar Madison who are drawn together after Felix is thrown out of his family home by his wife, who wants a divorce.

Set in New York in the sixties, the play is a heady combination of ‘Some Like It Hot’ and ‘Men Behaving Badly’ with a sprinkling of ‘Frasier’ – think of a slightly butcher version of ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ and you won’t go far wrong.

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Carlisle Green Room Club’s production of ‘The Odd Couple’ at the West Walls Theatres is wonderful.

Simon’s beautifully comic script comes to life and the intimate setting of the theatre brings the audience into Oscar’s front room where the whole play is set.

Charlie Leo Raine and Nic Ramsden both put in great turns as Oscar and Felix respectively.

The characters both have extended scenes where it is just the two of them on stage, but these moments were managed masterfully by the talented pair.

The ensemble of actors who make up the ‘poker gang’, Pauley Heron, Johnathan Millican, Tim Baugh and Dale Howcroft all inhabited their roles with great aplomb and the potentially tricky snappy comedic passages were all navigated with ease.

As the wonderfully named sisters, Gwendolyn and Cecily Pigeon, Verity Ramsden and Kate Sparkes-McSevich were excellent and relished the slight twist towards the end of the play.

The set design is also a triumph and clearly the result of length research and hard work by designer Sarah Walters.

I could gripe that the American accents weren’t always convincing, a few lines were slightly garbled, and the scene changes felt clunky but that would be churlish of me as none of these minor issues detracted in any way from the wonderful on-stage performances.  

‘The Odd Couple’ is on until Saturday, October 15 and with tickets still available I would encourage people to buy a ticket and see this gem of a production.

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