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GOOSE-PIMPLES by Mike Leigh
Venue: Garrick 1981
Directed by Mike Leigh



Cast
Antony Sher
Marion Bailey
Jill Baker
Jim Broadbent
Paul Jesson

Review
Prior to the West End

Goose Pimples, devised by Mike Leigh at the Hampstead Theatre features the host, Vernon, the lodger, Jackie, two guests, Irving and Frankie. and a stray pub acquaintance of Frankie, an Arab named Muhammad, who gather in Vernon’s flat for food, drink and a great deal of talk. The flat is smart in the red, black and chrome style, the young people (except for Muhammad) in tune with the ways of a slick would-be smart world. There are dartings for sex, car sales chat, and a stream of casual cross-talk and brisk banter on a thousand and one minor topics and trivialities.

The devising is sharp and quick, but has little cogent rhyme or reason. One misses a plot or some sort of story. Light-weight folk with minute brain power indulging in strictly light-weight personal matters are not likely to absorb or compel attention, and they do not do so here. But there are bright laughs, some neat invention, an effective way with pauses, and a character of originality and rich amusement in the barely articulate, non-English-speaking, bewildered Muhammad, who is brilliantly played by Anthony Sher. The party-evening ends, as one expects, in a big drunken mess, which is boring and inane, and detracts from the relative values of the rest of the play. Under the direction of Mike Leigh, Jim Broadbent, Marion Bailey, Paul Jesson and Jill Baker do some excellent work.