Monologues are curious beasts. They’ve become popular in recent years, not least because they cut down on production and touring costs. But they place considerable demands on the actor, who has to perform many roles in one show, shifting effortlessly between them, and often talking directly to the audience as well. If all the world’s a stage, then the lone actor has to occupy many of them at the same time. Only the best can do it.
Mark Carey is a master of the art, with a string of one man and small ensemble shows behind him. His latest show, Dead on Cue, recently performed at The Bear Pit Theatre, Stratford upon Avon, April 23-25, 2025, in partnership with Giles Shenton Productions, gave us an insight into his art in full flow.
Written by Mark, it is a ghost story set in the dressing room of a London theatre, spanning two generations sixty five years apart. The play in common is Hamlet, and the key characters are Bertie Tindall and Hamish Fife, minor character actors both, and Claude, later Sir Claude Mason, Shakespearean actor in the grand style. The three have a relationship that is only gradually revealed in a clever plot that is soaked in Shakespearean references and keeps one guessing till the end, when a ghostly twist is revealed that is surprising, scary and ultimately satisfying.
Mark’s track record includes What’s Wrong With Benny Hill, a touching and revelatory play about the comic who was a huge hit with British audiences in the 1970s, until he fell from grace, cut down by a new breed of more abrasive comedy that left his own, rooted in music hall, behind. Dead On Cue owes much to music hall, with Bertie’s shy and tender ‘boom-boom’ jokes delivered almost apologetically, drawn from his days treading the boards of a hundred half-empty theatres up and down the country. Mark has a soft spot for the gentle loser who nevertheless sees all and can tell all too, when the opportunity arises. With a sharp wit hidden within the soft tones he punctures the pomposity of many typical grandees of the theatre.
In the second half Mark plays Hamish Fife, a notch or two further up the theatrical ladder from his predecessor Bertie. Now he is playing understudy and the Ghost in Hamlet. But old memories hidden in the walls of the dressing room refuse to be silent, with specular and eerie results.
The atmosphere throughout is creepily claustrophobic, as it should be in the bowels of a theatre, where the air is saturated with the memories of old scores and strong emotions. It’s a tale many a thespian will recognise.
Dead on Cue is being delivered up and down the country, along with many other Gils Shenton productions, in a programme of shows that recalls the heyday of Rep’, when companies travelled up and down the country, staying in dingy hotels and B&Bs, always on the move. Maybe things are a little more comfortable now, but Mark Carey and Giles Shenton Productions keep a noble tradition of entertainment alive.
For more information see about dates and tours see: gilesshentonproductions.co.uk