Japes Too

We had already seen seen two plays in this series at the Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, Japes and Michael. All based on two brothers who had fallen for the same woman. She marries the elder more successful one, with whom she has a daughter (but is it his?), but really fancies the younger.

Japes was fair enough, but something not quite right about it. Some of the emotions just didn't ring true, and the ending is uncomfortable. Michael was then a short play somewhat filling in the middle of the Japes story with a very similar but not quite identical ending.

So with Japes Too we thought we were going to get another short play like Michael. Instead this was re-write of the original Japes. Lots of the dialogue and action was therefore familiar. But there was a completely different ending. I have to say this was so much better a play. I really didn't need to see the other two, except that by doing so one is maybe exposed to the process of writing. Its difficult to describe what the improvements were, other than it suddenly all worked. The characters all behaved believably this time. And there was a less uncomfortable ending, except that the ending seemed underdeveloped; we needed another bit of exposition to explain how the older brother had ended up in this mental state. But overall, a very good play, this time.

We drop of from the theatre front now - have very few plays lined up imminently, partly because I am soon off on holiday but also perhaps because we are entering a season of being outdoors. I made a bit of an attack on my overgrown garden today. But it is very much in flower.