STAGE REVIEW: Fracked! Or Please Don’t Use The F-Word - at the Festival Theatre, Malvern, from Monday, April 24 to Saturday, April 29, 2017.

NOW on tour after a pretty successful opening at the Chichester Festival, and enjoying a spell in London, it would appear, on the surface, that Fracked is going to be enjoyed around the provinces too.

Scratch a little below, or should that be engage in a little fracking, and Alistair Beaton’s satirical offering comes across as just above a sit-com drawing on a number of characters and action that have been seen and proved popular in the past on stage and screen.

A threatened village, angry residents, political shenanigans, spin doctors and the optional hippy are all there. All far from new but with Beaton’s script bang up to date it is funny, biting at times, and it also offers another plus in that it makes you think not just about fracking but other political hot potatoes that have upset numerous rural areas in recent years.

The opening night at the Festival was warmly received, especially with the attraction of seeing two hugely revered names from the acting world, and obviously the publicity machine had been well oiled too.

A mere mention of the Malvern venue by one of the stars on a morning television programme clearly did the trick with the booking office in overdrive answering calls from eager theatregoers wanting seats. And they wouldn’t have been disappointed either with seasoned professionals James Bolam and Anne Reid on top form in roles that are typically more or less second nature to them. Parts tackled with consumate ease.

Bolam is the ‘can’t do with all these modern gadgets and technology’ Jack, while his other half, Reid’s Elizabeth - a former academic, becomes a late-in-life radical activist - a powerful pensioner who knows her own mind and how to put her points over.

Battle lines are drawn between the energy company that’s keen to begin highly controversial fracking - a plan to mechanically explore for oil and gas from shale far below ground, and the local population desperate to thwart their efforts.

Top drawer performances not only from Reid and Bolam, but also Harry Hadden-Paton as the slippery PR consultant Joe, and Micheal Simkins' easily fobbed off head of Deerland Energy, Hal.

Enjoyable support too from Waleed Akhtar who played Joe’s assistant and Tristram Wymark’x Neville, a crafty councillor who knew how to take advantage of both sides. And there was also a perfect little spot of comedy from Steven Roberts as a hugely entertaining and effeminate waiter.

Plenty of spin on stage and more besides with an excellent revolving set which took us from the PR company’s palatial HQ to Jack and Elizabeth’s warm and welcoming cottage home. Plaudits here for James Collerill, while director Richard Wilson, he of One Foot In The Grave fame, ensures there is a good steady pace to all the action.

It’s hugely entertaining and helps add more fuel for those arguing both for and against fracking as the controversial process rumbles on around the country.