Red Phoenix Theatre Co. Goodwood Theatre. 16 Jan 2026

 

The ultimate feast for greedy theatre fiends. Red Phoenix crams nine plays into one night at the theatre.

 

They are short plays, some very short. They are very different. And they are delivered with professional flourish by a mass of very fine actors and directors plus techs and backstage support. The full catastrophe as Zorba might say.

 

But in the nicest way.

 

This production is season three, and it is a rip roarer. Audiences are colour-tagged in three groups, so they swap venue to venue in the theatre, sitting in each venue for three plays. Each group has a characterful minder, so the pack movements are slick and there’s the bar for stops betwixt and between. This promenade formula was devised by Red Phoenix when Covid restricted audience numbers. It was a way to fill the house and make a buck without crowding. The groups can be bigger these days.

 

In the Main Theatre, the night begins with In Farce, by Steven Bucko, a quaint confection based on the endless opening and closing doors of classic farce theatre. Directed by Norm Caddick it is a delicious folly, albeit it needs a bit of a hurry-up. Chilled Wine by Dorothy Lambert and directed by Alicia Zorkovic is the least pithy of all the plays but works as an attenuated revue skit. Indeed, the following play, Go to the Light by Laurie Allen is also a big skit. This one, however, is as pithy as can be as a diabolical send-up of Facebook addiction. Several of the plays are very skit-like and take one back to the long-lost days of revue. A Bottle for a Special Occasion by William Kovacsik is tragic comic with a tinge of romance, as is When I Fall in Love It Will Be by Susan Middaugh. It centres on the tragedy of dementia; melancholy charm and lovely performances therein from Adrian Barnes and Lisa Lanzi. This work is under Libby Drake’s direction and if there’s a director’s competition in the production, she wins outright with imagination and exuberance, bringing the cast of Jan Probst’s Road Trip back and back to The Studio stage as an unruly band of stagehands changing sets. They throw out funny memes and create delicious chaos. As for Road Trip, what a clever little work of physical comedy with gorgeous characters.  On Queue by Morey Norkin and James McLindon’s Choices are part of Hayley Horton’s directorial three and perhaps the trickiest and least pithy, despite valiant performance. These are very fine actors, a hearty reminder of the quality of stage acting which surrounds us in this city. Up there at the top are Michael Eustice and Sharon Malujlo who perform a period costume piece by Rob Taylor called Mrs Thrale Lays On…Tea! It is an outrageous and ingenuous gem and wild actors’ exercise.  It features also one of those jewels of bit part excellence from Zoe Battersby as the maid. 

 

There is too much to praise and too many names. Rounds of applause to Lyn Wilson, Lindsay Dunn, Joanne St Clair, Laura Lines and Bec Kemp, Cheryl Douglas, Peta Shannon, Jo Coventry, Adam Tuominen, Matt Chapman, Jack Robins, Jethro Pidd, Stuart Pearce, Jess Corrie, Laura Tregloan, Monika Lapka…and, and, and…

 

Include there Richard Parkhill, Will Gee and all the corollary workers. 

 

Red Phoenix continues to be a classy company.

 

Samela Harris

 

When: 15 to 24 Jan

Where: Goodwood Theatre

Bookings: trybooking.com