Beyond A Joke!

On arrival, I was met by Director Laurence Barnett and was immediately struck by the high-quality split set that had been constructed, consisting of the drawing room of the family home to the left of the stage, and central, the suspended window frame and doorway that led to the garden to the right. Attention to detail was faultless, with a lawn, bench, flowers and shrubs in the garden, and a sofa, paintings and drinks trolley in the lounge. Also nice to see liquid being poured into the various tea, coffee and alcohol vessels. Use of the blacks to obscure the backstage and wings was very well placed. Lighting of the set was also of the highest standard, ensuring that no cast member was ever shaded, and when the blinds were drawn down in the lounge, the lighting dimmed that side of the stage in time with it. The setting of the cast on the stage had also been meticulously thought out, no cast member was ever obstructed from audience view by another.

Opening the play was Kate Dann, as Jane, nervously climbing a ladder in the garden to clean the windows, and as she came down it again to meet her husband, Andrew (Matt Warren), the descent was equally as convincing, as this opening leads to the dark comedy thread throughout the play, that Jane and Andrew live in an accident prone property, that has resulted in a number of fatalities of visiting tradesmen, the window cleaner being the latest one (or at least, that was what was what they thought). Matt and Kate were hilarious as this middle-class couple, with Andrews’s sarcasm throughout against Jane’s more placid character. Andrew’s constant put downs and teasing of the potential future son-in-law Geoff (played by Jack Morter), with Jane trying to reign him in, was funny and they had great comic rapport.

Geoff arrives to meet his girlfriend, Sally (Beth Marsh), the daughter of Andrew and Jane. Mishearing the conversations about the various deaths that had taken place, Geoff believes Sally’s parents to be responsible for them, and their latest target is to be the new Vicar, (Jon Moule) who is shortly coming to introduce himself to his new parishioners. Jack Morter was excellent as Geoff, allowing the comedic characters to play off his reactions, to really draw the comedy out of virtually every line. When Geoff went to open a cupboard door in the drawing room, and a further dead body (Josh Francis), as a Sky installer who had been electrocuted, fell into his arms, it was comedy gold.

Beth, as Sally, who knows about the accidents but hasn’t told Geoff (for obvious reasons), also delivered a very strong performance throughout, as did Maris McCann, as Sarah, Andrew’s visiting scatty sister, who seemed to think that these accidents were just part of normal life and that making a cup of tea would make everything better.

Jon Moule’s portrayal of the unfortunate Vicar was exemplary, excellent facial expressions, and the amount of time that Jon had to act dead on a bench on stage, seemed to be an age, Jon never moving a muscle.

The biggest laugh was when Andrew lifted and put the Vicar into a wheelbarrow to carry him off and out of view of everyone.

Finally, as the parents of Geoff, Edgar (Andy Leitch), and Audrey, (Jennie Reavey), good acting throughout as they gradually realised the craziness of their son’s potential future in-laws.

This was a very professionally put together production throughout, and I look forward to my next visit to Old Buckenham Players for their next offering. Thank you for a very enjoyable evening.

 

 

 

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