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.