An Evening of Comedy

What a very pleasant evening we had attending the Unnamed Players production of “An Evening of Comedy” produced and directed by the very talented Enid Pennington. The programme consisted of a mixture of a one act play, and short comedy sketches with dance performances from an adult Ballet School between the sketches.

The one act play “Last Panto in Little Grimly” is written by David Tristram, the story revolves around an amateur dramatic society trying to decide on their next production a pantomime.  Unfortunately, the society have very little money, their audience numbers are practically non-existent, and their stage, scenery, costumes and lighting have all seen better days. However, the Director has some very unusual ideas to solve their problems leading to some comedic reactions and situations. The cast included Chris Hunter as Gordon, Pauline Doyle as Joyce, Vicki Doherty as Margaret and Eric Lawton as Bernard. The short sketches included an old favourite that took me back to my childhood called “Hands Up Your Sticks” which was originally performed by Kenneth Williams of Carry On fame and Lance Percival, the sketch was written by Peter Cook for a revue of Williams’s called “One Over the Eight”. It was enjoyably performed in this production by Gavin Whitfield as the robber and Jeff Powell as the banker. The second sketch was called “Michelangelo’s Last Supper”, Michelangelo and the Pope are very comically discussing the painting of the Last Supper, I must admit I was a little confused as the painting of the Last Supper was actually painted by Leonardo da Vinci, but here Michelangelo has included lots of people in his painting and the Pope is trying to explain to him that there were only 12 disciples at the last supper, the result was a very funny sketch and the actors involved were, Stephen Forshaw as the Pope and Edward Powell  as Michelangelo. The last sketch was called “He and She” about a lonely housewife who decides to tell her husband about her new fancy man with very comedic results, the husband was played by Jeff Powell and the wife by Linda Jeffries. All the actors worked hard and performed well together with comic timing, diction and clarity of words was excellent making it easy for the audience to follow the plots throughout the programme resulting in an entertaining comedy experience. There wasn't any scenery used, so the scenes were set and dressed using various props and good costumes, which was more than adequate for this type of production.

To make up the programme for the evening we were also entertained by the Broomfield Academy of Ballet (adults) who performed dance routines from such shows as 42nd Street and Sister Act.

Well done to Producer and Director Enid Pennington for a pleasant evening's entertainment spent in a lovely friendly atmosphere and well done to all involved in this production, thank you for inviting us we had a lovely evening Hope to see you for your next production.

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