Behind Close Doors

Dronfield Players are so fortunate in having three talented playwrights among the membership and this is our opportunity to see a performance of their latest work.

We never really know what goes on behind closed doors. Each of these three plays wasextremally well written, with solid characters portraying every emotion that we come across in our lives with our family, friends and strangers that we meet for the first time.

The first play, “Albert”, was written by Janice Sampson and directed by Chrissy Broughton.

Albert, a widower with a wicked sense of humour, decides to take a trip to America and this will be his first time in an aircraft. Just in case something happens to him, he decides to leave a video confessing all the misdemeanours in his life. Each time something went wrong, he would blame his son, daughter and sister and treated it all as great big laugh. As the play progresses the family believe that Albert has been killed in an air crash and they start to watch the video.

With the magic of back projection, we the audience also gained an insight into Albert’s confessions. The family’s anger is palpable, and they curse Albert throughout for how much misery he caused and end up hating him with a vengeance. However, Albert suddenly appears. He hadn’t died, he had simply missed the flight and yet still tries to blame everyone else. Albert thought it was all a great big laugh, but the family are unable to forgive and forget what he has done. The four actors in the play were very good. Alisdair Adams as Albert was very articulate, and his dialogue flowed with ease. Likewise, his sister Sandra (Sharon Wilde), son Robert (Daniel Roberts) and daughter Jennifer (Kirsten Lees). Good performances from all these actors.

The next play was “Mary & Jean” written and directed by Alisdair Adams.

Two good friends, Mary and Jean, are very much down-to-earth Yorkshire characters in true Yorkshire style and on a day out in Sheffield they visit the cathedral. Mary, being knowledgeable about the cathedral’s architecture and artwork, tries to bring this to the attention of her friend Jean. During any conversation, Jean is unable to help herself and mis-pronounces words which then sound extremely rude. This results in very funny dialogue between the two ladies and the rapport between them was very good indeed.

As the ladies chatter away, they are joined by two other ladies, who look as if they have just arrived from Ladies Day at Ascot with cut-glass accents to match. They couldn’t have been so different from Mary and Jean but as time moves on, the class division gets smaller, and they end up arranging to meet again for a cuppa and a chat. Janice Sampson as Mary, Gayle Hazelby as Jean, Ginny Priestley as Margot and Mandy Simms as Persephone all gave first-class performances.

The third play was “Family Ties” written and directed by Caroline Hurt.

Watching this play, I am certain that it brought to the audience’s mind similar situations that happen in their family lives. Claire is a very busy wife, mother, daughter and friend and dreams she would like to be a playwright. However, she gets no encouragement from her family as they consider their needs to be greater that hers. Claire is nevertheless determined and starts to write her play. As she types, we see the characters appear on stage and act out according to Claire’s interpretation, but she keeps changing her mind as to in which era the plays are set. Lots of very funny scenes played by the seven actors who also take on the roles of members of Claire’s family. With amazing speed, they leave stage left only to reappear stage right with a change of character and costume. All seven actors in this production were excellent. Sarah Betts (Claire), Mandy Simms (Mary), Daniel Roberts (Jim), Kirsten Lees (Kate), Charlie Rivers (Beth), Janice Sampson (Yvonne) and Carol Mullins (Mum).

It was great to watch a productions I had not seen before and all three plays were very well written with wit and pathos, making the characters very realistic. The plays were well directed with a very good cast of fifteen who gave their characters life, meaning and with a good pace of dialogue when required. The minimalist sets, lighting and sound all combined to make this a first-class production.

Thank you for the invite, hospitality, the laughter and an evening much enjoyed by everyone.

 

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