A BASEMENT TOO FAR

 A journey through the beautiful Mendip hills on a lovely summer’s day brought us to Draycott, for a splendid evening of entertainment; not only were the audience treated to a super one act play, but to follow was a Ploughman’s Supper and Quiz! 

Thank you so much for your great welcome and generous hospitality, it was much appreciated and all in the great company of the Cobley Family!

“The Basement too Far” by Liz Turner was directed by Fliss Cobley and a super job she made of it and is to be congratulated.

The comedy is all about getting locked in the basement of a library and there follows the consequences for the librarian, Maggie, Miranda, a writer, Simone, a visitor, Wolf Torrent an explorer, Colin the security guard, and Sam, the cleaner!

This made for interesting exploration of each character and their various reactions to being locked in together   

Maggie, trying to keep them all calm, and almost succeeding, Miranda was trying to help poor Simone with her many hang-ups and phobias but making things worse by her crass comments. Wolf boring everyone with tales of his implausible exploits, could they possibly be true? Poor hapless Colin who was responsible for locking them all in in the first place and then along comes the cleaner Sam who eventually frees most of them from their imprisonment. The ending was never obvious and a nice twist at the end made this a play that kept the audience wondering right up to the final curtain and even then?-----

Maggie gave a great portrayal as the librarian; her facial expressions and pauses were brilliant!

Miranda looked the part and gave a great interpretation of wasting her time with inferior people and getting increasingly impatient with them especially Wolf and Simone! Great stuff!

Simone came over well as someone who found herself in an unexpected and unplanned situation. She panicked beautifully and was totally authentic

Wolf played the part well and had some super lines, delivering them to perfection!

Colin performed well by playing the clueless character very seriously, making the role even funnier, a super character that was performed to great advantage.

Sam’s was a lovely cameo performance, saving the day!

The dialogue was a little slow in places, but this was a great one act play with a mix of suspense, comedy, and bit of pathos. All the ingredients for a great night out at its best, Congratulations and thanks once again for such a warm welcome

Graham Liverton 

Regional Councillor  NODA Southwest

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