Reviewed By Roy Gray
The Geeks of Yesteryear
Who were the geeks of the 1950s? For Lawrence Ghorra and Mark Winstanley, writers of Cabbages which ran from 14th-18th February 2006 at Manchester’s Contact Theatre they were the librarians.
This is horror in the asylum as Dr Spinoza, the self-proclaimed genius psychiatrist in charge of Ravenscroft Mental Asylum, decides librarians are the key to world domination. They hold the world’s knowledge and he intends to hold them.
In the park outside that institution two librarians Geoffrey Ramsbottom, a cliché naive trainee, and his fully qualified co-worker, Audrey, are courting. Audrey suddenly disappears in the midst of declaring her admiration for Geoff’s “natural flair for the Dewey System”. One act later two detectives are accusing Geoffrey of murder. His denials are worthless because he can’t remember what did happen. So what’s to do but ship him to Ravenscroft. Will he find Audrey? Can a librarian’s innate knowledge of Dewey Classification Numbers help resist the evil machinations of the megalomaniac Dr Spinoza? At first it seems so but Dr Spinoza has reserved at least one further horrible assault on the mind of the librarian, picture books!
The fifties, the time of ‘The Manchurian Candidate’ and the decade of lithium, brain washing, sleep deprivation, hypnotism, locking prisoners in mental asylums, meals in pills, tranquillisers plus electric shock treatment and Dr Spinoza wields them all.
Joe Atack had the best lines as that self-deluding, Napoleon admiring, doctor and played the part brilliantly; his very tall, almost gaunt, frame along with a deliberate stilted diction, in a dry quiet, soft but menacing voice made his ambitions seem very credible.
In the fifties Donald Pleasance had the epitome of evil voices and it made him champion of memorable horror and other movie villains in the mad scientist/doctor mould. I foresee a similar career for Joe Atack if he is happy to be so typecast.
The actors were generally good but some shouted at times. Zoe Nicholas, as Nurse Hart, cleverly expressed her unrequited passion for Dr Spinoza.
"Hazel Earle, doubling up as Nurse Clench and Audrey, was nicely geekish, dominant, blank and sexy as the plot unfolded."
Kenan Ali did well as Geoffrey, the librarian who knows his Dewey numbers but little else.
