A Chorus of Disapproval

South Gate. Director Michael Winner; Producer Michael Winner; Screenplay Michael Winner, Alan Ayckbourn; Camera Alan Jones; Editor Chris Barnes; Music John DuPrez;; Art Director Peter Young

Jeremy Irons
Anthony Hopkins
Prunella Scales
Jenny Seagrove
Sylvia Sims
Patsy Kensit

It's tricky trying to convert stage to screen, and this is one play that suffers in translation. As a movie, A Chorus of Disapproval, chugs along when Alan Ayckbourn's play raced.

Jeremy Irons shines as Jones, a shy, rather nervous widower who comes to work in the small English seaside town of Scarborough. He is lonely and, to meet people, he joins the local amateur group, which is practicing A Beggar's Opera.

The production is directed by Dafydd Llewellyn (Anthony Hopkins), a scruffy solicitor whose only passion is the theatre and who only really comes alive when he is directing a new play.

Jones, without really trying, soon becomes a small Lothario, his actions having hilarious effects on the various members of the drama group. Jones becomes involved with Llewellyn's lonely wife, Hannah (Prunella Scales), but she finds she is not alone in his affections.

Pic is a fine, if uninspired, first screen adaptation of one of Great Britain's favorite playwrights.

(Color) Available on VHS. Extract of a review from 1989. Running time: 100 MIN.

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