Theatre review: Tasting Notes

With Southwark Playhouse's Large auditorium currently experiencing a yeast infection, it might have been complementary if the Little had put on a show about beer. Unfortunately the scheduling hasn't worked out quite so on-theme, and instead we get a show about wine: Richard Baker (music & lyrics) and Charlie Ryall's (book & lyrics) Tasting Notes takes place between 7pm on Monday and 7pm on Tuesday in a reasonably successful wine bar, LJ's: The eventful 24 hours, which include the deaths of one cat and one lead character, are played out in song six times, from the differing perspectives of five of the staff and one of the customers. Hassled owner LJ (Nancy Zamit) is exhausted by having to cover for missing staff and a business that's picking up, but not quickly enough to afford some of the necessary improvements. She's essentially good-natured but her tiredness makes her snap at her staff, and to cap it all off she's about to make a grim discovery.

We then see the day's events from the perspectives of her assistant manager Maggie (Ryall,), alcoholic patron Joe (Stephen Hoo,) waiter George (Sam Kipling,) chef/cleaner Ezster (Wendy Morgan) and barman Oliver (Niall Ransome.)

There's a cliché about being nice to people because you don't know what struggle everyone is going through on the inside, and that's essentially the premise of Tasting Notes: The same scenes play out with little changes in dialogue, intonation and body language that reveal differences in intent and understanding. LJ comes across as snappy to some of her staff, who don't know how exhausted she is, while she grows impatient with George missing a shift, not knowing that he'd been queerbashed the night before.

George himself is a good reader of body language, matchmaking Maggie and Oliver, neither of whom has spotted that the other is flirting back at them, but too self-involved to actually listen to spoken language, and in his retelling much of everyone else's dialogue is just "blah, blah, blah." Hungarian-born Eszter, on the other hand, is desperately trying to understand every word but her limited English means a lot of the time she's only getting the gist, or misunderstanding entirely.

The cast of Shelley Williams' production add much of the show's likeability, and the high concept is dealt with pretty well, the Constellations-style repeated scenes with changes of emphasis selling the premise of an exhange coming across very differently in one person's head than in another's. But Ryall's book isn't without its problems, particularly with regard to Joe, whose story feels like it belongs in a different kind of drinking establishment: I was a bit distracted by the thought that he must be a particularly well-off alcoholic, as you don't usually imagine a barfly spending 12 hours a day drinking in the kind of bar where the staff gasps if you don't swill the wine enough times before sipping it.

The plot's also too-heavily dependent on coincidence, as the denizens of LJ's bump into each other outside of work; especially problematic is a last-minute twist that doesn't entirely come out of nowhere plot-wise (it's been hinted we don't know everything about a particular event) but character-wise certainly does. It's an unearned dark turn for one of the show's sweetest storylines, and the speed with which Baker and Ryall try to get redemption and bring it back on track feels like they're trying to have their wine and drink it.

Musically it's a mixed bag both in influences and success, the first act opening with some Sondheim-homaging wordplay that doesn't quite land, the second with a disco-inspired number, which is no excuse for having Kipling sing the entirety of "Every Night" in a falsetto. Most of the songs are just about serviceable but Maggie and Oliver's love song "It Could Be You" is the clear standout number. Justin Williams' simple but solid-looking set lends production values. No costume designer is credited, possibly because it would give away their crush on Kipling (whether he's playing the twinky George or doubling as a supporting character, the key note for his clothing seems to be "as little of it as we can get away with.")

Although it dives (with varying degrees of success) into darker territory, Tasting Notes for the most part aims for a light, sometimes sad but generally heartwarming evening, and there's some good jokes along the way. Much of the humour is at the expense of customers who don't appreciate wine in the same way as the lead characters, and I would have liked a bit more of that spotlight to have been shifted back to the people who can't drink a glass of wine without telling you it has notes of rhubarb crumble and turps. But I guess their status as wine snobs just gives them a bit more colour to add to their personalities: Tasting Notes also has its flaws, some of which nag at you while you're watching, some only later; but for the most part it's an entertaining evening that makes a fair stab at its high concept.

Tasting Notes by Richard Baker and Charlie Ryall is booking until the 27th of August at Southwark Playhouse's Little Theatre.

Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes including interval.

Photo credit: Chris Marchant.