Review: Stand ’n’ Tan, Customs House South Shields

Apr 2 2009 by Sam Wonfor, The Journal

NO stranger to packed houses, Open Clasp Theatre Company entertained another full auditorium with its current touring offering, Stand ’n’ Tan.

The North East’s only professional women’s theatre company is now well established and delights with high energy, usually side-splitting shows.

And Stand ’n’ Tan is no exception.

Bursting on to the stage with a dance routine to make Girls Aloud quiver, the all-female cast introduce the show as if speaking to customers in a beauty salon, a novel technique that was lapped up by the audience.

It is set before the wedding of Joanne (a loud but lovable beauty therapist) and takes us through all her trials and tribulations – a manic, interfering mother, a stroppy teenage bridesmaid and a dressmaker who has inconveniently sliced the tops of her fingers off while working on the cheese counter at Fenwick’s.

But all this is thrown into harsh relief as we hear the heart-wrenching tale of Maryam, an asylum seeker who has saved the day as stand-in seamstress while she battles to keep herself and her children in the UK after suffering horror in Iran.

All five deserve high praise for their performances: Eva Quinn as the excited bride-to-be; Paula Penman who showed great comic timing as the protective best friend and closet lesbian Sandra; Karen Traynor as the inspiring Maryam; Helen Embleton as the wayward little sister, and Catrina McHugh (also the writer), who excelled as the garish, racist mother.

Alison Ashton’s superb set adapts as the story takes us from salon chaos to the sterile tension of the Home Office.

With a feelgood soundtrack and plenty of gags, Stand ’n’ Tan is light relief from heavy headlines, yet its serious undertones echo wider issues without making you feel guilty for letting your hair down.

Emily Taylor