A Little Hotel on the Side

The play takes place in 19th century  Paris and follows two Parisian neighbouring households and their friends over the course of two days set either in the house of Benoit and Angelique Pinglet  or the somewhat notorious Free Trade Hotel!

Both the Pinglets (Chris Hall and Fiona Clayton) and their neighbours Henri and Marcella Paillardin, (Andrew Worley and Melanie Brown) had less than satisfactory relationships and their characters were portrayed well. Meanwhile the Paillardin’s nephew ‘Maxime’ played by Matthew Jeffrey who concentrated more on his books than the ladies, was led astray by the Pinglet’s maid ‘Victoire’ played by Erin Maiden and each too captured their characters well.

The Pinglet’s friend, ‘Mathieu’ (James Cowlishaw) arrived hoping to stay and his first scene when stuttering (only affected by poor weather) was very amusing. He was accompanied by his three daughters all played with great presence by Kacie Fazackerley, Daisy Moffatt and Emily Tennant.

In typical farce style, they all end up at the Free Trade Hotel where ‘Bastien’ the Hotel manager (Guy Radford) and ‘Boulot’ the hotel porter (George Clayton) add to the confusion. Here the tempo was raised and both gave sound performances.

Some of the misbehaviour reaches the ear of ‘Inspector Boucard’ played well by Chris Broad and after enforcing a heavy fine on Benoit Pinglit, by some mistaken identity the cash is returned to the lucky Maxime, who amusingly accepts it wondering if it is a reward!

Generally the pace was good but I wonder if the cast illnesses which meant 3 earlier performances had to be cancelled may have affected the overall impact. The set divided between the home of the Pinglets and the hotel and its rooms were well devised and the principle costumes were very impressive. Congratulations to all involved.

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