Review: TEETH ‘N’ SMILES, Duke of York’s Theatre
Photo credit: Helen Murray
David Hare’s 1975 play, Teeth ‘n’ Smiles is celebrated with a fiftieth-year anniversary revival at the Duke of York’s Theatre. It is set around the performance of a rock band - Maggie Frisby and the Skins - at the May Ball on 9th June 1969 at Jesus College, Cambridge. For those who remember those times, these all-night parties with food, dance and a middle of the night film were a rite of passage for the “well to do” students, the sort we see in filmed dance in the pre-show footage. The play reflects the musical trends of the time as Punk music was emerging, with its anarchic rebellious tone and aggressive driving sounds. The cultural clash of these bands and the establishment, here represented by the College porter, Sneed (delightfully played by Christopher Patrick Nolan) and Anson, the student event organiser (amusingly played by Roman Ashe), provides plenty of humour and light relief. Anson’s rebellious nature is set up by the declaration that he was going to “drop out … after he graduates!”
The band are the stereotypical collection of characters driven by sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, arriving ninety minutes late for their three-set concert and in no rush to perform as they play games, seek sex and inject drugs. Hare neatly draws out the different band characteristics, and the excellent cast create that sense of late 1960s hippy culture in the attitude, dress and behaviour. Anybody who hung around a Student Union building in the early 1970s would recognise the sort! Peyote is the drug crazed bass guitarist (a wonderfully psychotic performance from Jojo Macari). Smegs is lead guitarist (Samuel Jordan) who lead sings the best song of the show ‘Don’t Let the Bastards Come Near You’ with the rest of cast lit in tight spotlights. Nash (Bill Caple) is on drums and Wilson (Michael Abubakar) plays the keyboard. They create a strong driving sound that is raw and exciting. Inch (Noah Weatherby) has great fun as the roadie who holds up the performance by delaying fixing a plug while seeking sex with the students at the ball while it is graphically observed that having sex was like “putting a marshmallow in a coin slot”.
At the heart of the show is a love triangle between Arthur (Michael Fox), the band’s songwriter; Laura (Aysha Kala), the band’s publicist and rationale guide'; and the fragile lead singer Maggie (played by Rebecca Lucy Taylor, aka Self Esteem). Taylor is at her best as she breaks down mid-song during ‘Passing Through’ and in her own new song, ‘Maggie’s Song’, a poignant folksy ballad sat on the forestage. Her fraught past relationship with Arthur is summed up by ‘The Wilder I Got, The More You Liked It’ and her statement that “singing is easy, it’s the bits in between I can’t do!” Sat in second row, you feel like you are at that May Ball concert, it’s loud and in your face but occasionally the sound mix loses the vocals, mixed for the back of the stalls.
In the midst of all the madness and chaos arrives Saraffian, the cynical band manager and promotor (played by the enigmatic and crusty Phil Daniels who has such a wonderful stage presence) with his sidekick Randolph (Joseph Evans). He is manipulative, crooked and untrustworthy but curiously, we warm to him more than Maggie who seems self-centred, tormented and oblivious to those around her through her excessive drinking.
The programme styled on ‘The Little Red Book’ sets out the argument that it was and remains difficult to “be the only woman on stage, and often felt dismissed by the industry as difficult, diva-ish or demanding” and the story mirrors Rebecca Lucy Taylor’s own feelings as a musician. She clearly feels the pressure but is also driven by the desire to perform. Is the world changing? In the 1970s, we had the perception that Toyah Wilcox, Blondie, and Siouxsie and the Banshees were led by women in charge of their destiny and today, Taylor Swift seems in complete control of her own image and success. Though this revival does feel like the capture of a moment in time, an era when music and culture was changing, it also provokes thoughts on the challenges of breaking through and the controlling forces that shape careers whether that is writers, promotors or publicists (social media managers in today’s world). But most of all, this is a production that means you can, once again, admire the quality of David Hare’s writing, ensemble character creations, and the talent and abilities of the actor-musicians who perform in this show.
***** Five stars
Reviewed by: Nick Wayne
Teeth ‘n’ Smiles plays at London’s Duke of York’s Theatre until 6 June, with tickets available here.
