Harriet Usher
Actress - Press
Actress - Press
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| School for Scandal Bridewell Theatre 13th January 2009 |
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A perfect lunchtime chortle Everyone loves a good scandal and this is probably why Sheridan’s most famous play has stood the test of the time for the last two hundred and thirty years. Here, the Red Handed Theatre Company bring a lunchtime version lasting but fifty minutes to the stage of the Bridewell Theatre, just off Fleet Street (a place where scandal once had a natural home). It is a testament to how well they have extracted the essence and soul of Sheridan’s masterpiece that one can scarcely remember what they have had to leave out. This is a gem of a production, a box of gorgeous delights which should satisfy any lunchtime playgoer, and a perfect antidote to the January blues. From Lady Sneerwell’s majestic entrance, to the comic climax where Sir Peter’s young wife is uncovered hiding behind the screen in ‘virtuous’ Joseph Surface’s apartment, one is swept along in the intrigue. |
As this is so clearly an ensemble piece it would be unfair to single out any member of the cast - and difficult too. In this glittering social comedy of manners, ripostes are cast around by each member of the supremely talented company with witty abandon as though they had been doing it all their lives. The vicious back-biting world of the eighteenth century, where cheats and fraudsters abound, is not dissimilar to our own, and is captured well here. Directed with flare and style by Jessica Swale, and with nothing spared in the way of sumptuous eighteenth century costume, this version of School for Scandal is beautiful to look at, as well as being enormous fun. I can’t think of a better way of spending a lunch hour in the city. Rating: 5/5 - David Scott, Broadway Baby |
| See How They Run Theatre Royal 7th August 2008 |
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This farce by Phillip King debuted in 1945 and is based on mistaken identities, a vicarage which is besieged by an escaped Nazi prisoner-of-war, a visiting bishop and a stand-in priest, who all, not surprisingly, turn up at the same time. Having seen a few revivals, I usually find them dated and unfunny but I have to congratulate Ian Masters for directing this witty, madcap, fast-paced romp. The cast includes Frazier Hines, Michael Sharvell-Martin and Helen Jackells, who played Miss Skillon, a straight-laced churchgoer, who became very inebriated with hilarious consequences and was in love with Ian Swann’s Reverend Toop. |
Guy Siner of ‘Allo, ‘Allo! fame, also starred but for me Harriet Usher was the one that held it all together. As Ida the maid, she played the common blonde, who saw everything, but could say nothing. It was spellbinding to watch the hapless antics and the audience certainly showed their appreciation by exercising their laughter muscles. - Martyn Jex, Maidenhead Advertiser |
| See How They Run Blackpool Grand Theatre 24th June 2008 |
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Wartime farce still amuses. When originally staged in 1944, Philip King's first major theatrical success must have seemed truly outrageous. Here was a chance for a war ravaged nation and its war-weary service people to laugh at establishment figures, organised religion, rationing and, of course, the Germans. Presented this week as part of Blackpool's Veterans' Week celebrations, the Ian Dickens Productions' revival of the xenophobic English farce is on one hand a triumph of good timing and on the other a chance to revisit a work which influenced generations of subsequent writers and carved a template for such tv situation comedies as Dad's Army, 'Allo 'Allo and It Ain't Half Hot Mum. Steeped more in the traditions of British variety than the bawdier style of French farces, it nevertheless makes full use of mistaken identities, drunken spinsters, petty mindedness and, of course, more open doors than a spring sale at B&Q. |
King isn't a smirk merchant – he goes for the slapstick belly laugh and Rachel Izen's plastered and infatuated Miss Skilton does his creation proud with slow-mo slides to the floor and Freddie Frinton staggering. Likewise Harriet Usher's Ida works perfectly timed comic wonders as the hapless maid at the epicentre of the increasingly manic action. King rarely wrote for star names – making them rather than relying on them – but for today's demands Dickens sensibly peppers his cast with the likes of Dale Meeks, Jeffrey Holland, Guy Siner and Frazer Hines for the "wasn't he in… such and such" brigade to feel they've got their money's worth. - Robin Duke, Blackpool Gazette |
| See How They Run Civic Theatre, Chelmsford 19th June 2008 |
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See How They Run is a farce that boasts several well known faces from past and popular television shows. Based at the time of the Second World War it is set in a country vicarage and involves mistaken identity regarding men of the cloth. And I would have to say that like the curate's egg - it was good in parts. It had all the right ingredients for farce - mistaken identity, people chasing each other across the stage in various states of undress - but it lacked cohesion. Reverend Lionel Toop is newly married to a former actress who does not conform to the stereotype of a vicar's wife. Kathryn Dimmory - not one of the well known actors on the bill - was very strong in the role as his wife Penelope as were the other female roles. Particularly good was Rachel Izen as Miss Skillon - the church stalwart - who sets the ball rolling by her visit to the vicarage coming to complain that Penelope has taken over her role in decorating the pulpit for the harvest festival. |
The old and the new in soap terms were portrayed by former Emmerdale star Frazer Hines as the police sergeant setting about the task of tracing a missing German soldier and Dale Meeks who has more recently left the soap after playing fishmonger Simon Meredith. Also in the production is Guy Siner - well remembered and loved as Lieutenant Gruber in Allo, Allo - who was cast in much the same role as the German soldier. I particularly liked Hi-De-Hi's Jeffrey Holland's portrayal of fellow vicar Arthur Humphrey and Michael Sharvell-Martin another familiar television face was also believable as the bishop. As you can tell vicars feature very largely in the plot - and it is all great fun - but I think they could have done with a bit more divine guidance to help the production flow more easily. - Denise Rigby, Chelmsford Weekly News |
| Salsa Saved the Girls Old Red Lion Theatre, London 1st November 2007 |
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Cali, a divorced mother of two interesting teenagers, is getting ready for a hot date with Bobby, the greasy Italian hunk, when her Del-boy of an ex-husband Louie, appears and overstays his welcome. Louie starts getting jealous of Bobby, tetchy about his daughters smoking several joints with their mum and preoccupied with his sweaty balls. Things get even more strained when Simon, a strange deep-breathing psychiatrist shows up, proclaiming his love for Cali too. This portrait of an American modern-day dysfunctional family is both zany yet touching. Martula’s tight grip on fast-flowing dialogue is impressive and makes for exciting watching. And poignant moments of passion and desperation, form a powerful undercurrent to the wry jokes constantly bandied about. |
Sally Ann Ramage’s portrayal of a 14 year old is captivating and wholly convincing, as is the depiction of her sharp older sister by Erin Hunter. The Italian and the shrink provide some good laughs and a couple of blows. But when Harriet Usher (Cali) salsas with her ex-husband, Simon Cole (Louie), hairs stand on end. His sexual prowess is magnetic and her eyes and body language pitch the emotion of irreparable women perfectly. - Emma Barnett, The Stage |
| Salsa Saved the Girls Old Red Lion Theatre, London 25th October 2007 |
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The dances of the damned When neurotic Simon is catapulted into the lounge having been attacked by a crazed albino skunk, the audience forget their British discomfort with physical proximity – intrinsic to the Old Red Lion experience – and succumb to uncontrolled hilarity. Like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Cat on a Hot Tim Roof, Rose Martula’s slither of dysfunctional American life all takes place in one night. We may love to hate reality TV, but there is a perverse pleasure in recognising the root of a person’s insecurity and where the parents went wrong. Snapping his fingers and slicking back his hair, Louie (Simon Cole), the Calvin Klein donning absentee father of 14-year-old Kai and mature 17-year-old Sabrina, garners little sympathy when he refers to his daughters as “f***ers”. |
The tragic yet strident leopard skin-clad mother Cali (convincingly played by Harriet Usher) lets her daughters drink alcohol and smoke “blunts” but will not condone Louie’s language. All the attention-seeking characters are obvious caricatures but the strength of the cast and direction of the play lends the comical script the depth it deserves. Underlying the cliched personas of Sally Ann Ramage’s purposefully talentless, pirouetting Kai, co-producer Erin Hunter’s sassy quick-witted Sabrina, “Mom’s new date” Italian stallion Bobby or even the stalker Simon, there are real people. Garish and loud, the neon, pink and Hawaii- themed set is horrible fun but there is subtlety too. Martula avoids spelling out the unspoken pain this family has clearly suffered. Negotiating their way round Simon’s urine, a lingering reminder of Louie’s bad temper, a weakened Cali shares a last dance with Louie. Poignant moments like this, rather than the disappointing ending, are what “save the girls” and linger in the memory. - Sara Newman, Camden New Journal |