TWO Junglebean Director's Hotel Until 03 Jul 2010 Review by Nick Buckland Junglebean have returned to The Director’s Hotel, to present a second offering of “Two”. This play, written by Lancashire born playwright, Jim Cartwright, is an intriguing play providing the opportunity for two actors to perform fourteen different roles, in the setting of a pub – so the venue is well chosen! The story follows an evening’s trade in a pub run by the principle characters, Landlord (Tim Overton) and Landlady (Renee Gentle). Their evening entails interaction with the audience, unseen hoards of customers and those that we get to see as well, all played by Tim and Renee. As the evening progresses, we are introduced to the banter and humour of the hosts, with glimpses of what appears to be rhetoric but rapidly develops into anger and possibly hatred, but they instantly mask their own emotions when a customer appears. Customers come in many shapes and forms, each displaying differing human emotions and conditions such as humour, fear, control, grief, pity, despair and resignation. The style of the play and the episodic nature of the landlord and landlady’s unravelling story, being interspersed with customer events, leads through a journey of laughter and tears. It is with great skill and characterisation that Overton and Gentle are able to engage the audience with compelling short stories yet still maintain the sense of continuance in the underlying story. The pace at which they take us through the events of the evening is just right, with some excellent use of silence as the poignancy of the plot evolves. The venue is ideal, affording the right level of intimacy and authenticity. Effective lighting, simple design and cleverly scored music all ensure that the changing action and locations are easily followed. This is a delightful production of a very clever play, performed by a talented pair of actors who have been well directed, by Michael Hill, and ably supported by a strong team. There’s not much time left to see the play, but those who can, should!