Bed

The thing I love about Barton Players is that they are no ordinary village hall drama society. Most of what they produce is very much home grown, slightly quirky and often comes at you from left field. Their latest production is no exception. Put a bed in the middle of the stage, change the headboard occasionally, add a few props and extra pieces of furniture; then write 20 skits or mini plays around it. What a brilliantly simple idea! And the brains behind this concept were of course the creative geniuses that are Keith Badham and long-term stalwart Harold Liberty, both of whom wrote and directed the show between them.

Now I won’t even pretend to remember the detailed plots of all 20 playlets, I’d need to see the show at least once more to be able to do that, however we had a whole gambit of emotions and plot twists, mostly based around humourous human episodes that most people would be able to relate to, plenty of pathos thrown in for good measure and a lot of out of the box thinking. To name but a few, we started with the very clever and very funny ‘Never a Cross Word’ by Keith Badham, where a couple that had been married for 20 plus years were in bed together, with him doing his nightly crossword puzzle as he had done every night since they were married, whilst she reflected on the consequential demise of their love life.

We had ‘Death Bed’ by Harold Liberty where various two-faced visitors to a dying man spoke platitudes to him whilst speaking their vitriolic mind to the audience, signified by a figure holding a hand over their heads and the stage illuminating red.   

A clever thought-provoking piece, ‘It’s a Drag’ by Keith Badham as a drag queen reflecting upon his sexuality/vulnerability in a cruel world whist taking his makeup and clothes off at bedtime.  That was particularly clever because it meant he was ready for the next scene and wasn’t hurriedly changing backstage.  Or the one with my favourite punchline, ‘Child’s Play’ by Harold Liberty where you think its adults playing small children having a pillow fight until their daughter appears with the line, “Be quiet or you’ll wake your grandson.” Brilliant!

We had a man ‘Waking up in Bed’ with a perfect stranger after a night of passion, or so he was led to believe, but not knowing who she was or how he got there, not realising it was a sting operation between the lady in bed and his wife looking for evidence for a divorce. That one raised a gasp or two when he actually got out of bed and walked off completely naked!! Or the farce where a man playing the field with a whole host of women who had to hide them in various places including a large laundry bag, ‘Four Play.’

A divorced couple sitting on the end of the bed each writing to their children explaining their opposite points of view as to why their relationship had broken down. ‘Divorce.’ A clever piece, ‘Pillow Talk’ where the actors became the props - two pillows and a duvet complaining about their experiences of hotel guests etc., etc..

The second half of the show started with a long scream which certainly made everybody sit up as Rachael Bowie in the part of inpatient at a mental asylum (‘Bedlam’) gives a harrowing account of how she ended up restrained to the bed. That got our attention!

Just so many clever ideas and with a cast of 14 to spread the workload this worked like a dream, slick scene changes, clever arrangement of the various pieces to highlight the modes and alter the tempo. In fact an all round riveting entertaining evening. This was very much a team effort from a long standing group of actors – a particular treat was both the opening scene which featured the whole cast and the curtain call where the whole cast gathered around the bed.

So well done indeed to: Christine Ayres, Hayley Bloodworth, John Murphy, Ashley Parker, Linda Forster, Judy Barclay, Katie Westwick, Rachael Bowie, Rebecca-Louise Smith, Mick George, Lesley Jorgensen, Gill George, Harold Liberty and Keith Badham.

Back stage, the lighting and sound were in the very capable hands of Keith and Adam Bowie whilst Stage manager Rachael Bowie ran a tight ship when not on stage herself and assistant director Derryanne Blunt coordinated the costumes, or should I say lack of them in a lot of scenes.

And of course the final word of the review should go to the star of the show – the bed itself which worked incredibly hard without saying a word!

As I said at the beginning, this group are no ordinary am dram society, and long may it continue, And not forgetting their hospitality is second to none. Thank you Barton Players, groups like yours are the reason I do this job.

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