Caught on the Hop

The scene was set in the well-furnished lounge of Phil and Maggie’s house and the properties on stage added to the attractive presentation of yet another richly entertaining play. The cast gave confident performances in their individual characters.

Luke appeared totally at ease and despite being a Lothario made a very likeable Phil, constantly in love with someone but seemingly unaware that the consequences were unacceptable to anyone other than himself.  Luke is a natural comedian and his timing was excellent.

As George, who tried hard to be the steadying influence in Phil’ chaotic love life, Craig Entwistle was very good. His reaction to Phil’s latest romance oscillated between being distressed at the prospects of having to tell Maggie what was going on and horrified bemusement at his friend's naivety.

Rosalyn Young gave a good performance as the knowing daily, Mrs Puffet. She considered herself put upon and made sure Maggie knew it. The oven explosion and her resulting appearance was one of the highlights.

Another first rate characterisation from Laura Allen as Maggie, the long suffering wife who, it turned out at the end, had a secret of her own. She really has excellent voice projection and great stage presence.

Anwen was charming as the new love in Phil’s life (although it was a pity that her hair constantly obscured her face) and was totally credible as the trusting, unsophisticated and besotted young woman, Julie.

The uniform looked great on Steve and he gave a nice steady characterisation of Julie’s father, Mr. Brasset.

In contrast to Julie, Greta was quite a different type of woman and Rachel Barnes played the role with obvious enjoyment, dealing with being spurned by drinking vodka in the linen cupboard!

Thomas Manley appears completely relaxed on stage and always looks as though he’s having such a good time! In the role of Alan a carefree young gigolo, we saw a change of mood change as things started to get more serious than he’d intended.

Full of plotting, counterplotting and mistaken identities, the story is incredibly convoluted. However situations can be easily misunderstood and seen differently to what they really are - and it was great fun watching the characters become more and more muddled as they tried to wriggle out of situations or to understand explanations.

You had a very talented group of actors on stage who, with Mike’s secure direction were able to bring his vision to life. Anthony Doggwiler gave splendid support on the lighting and sound front and I enjoyed the choice of music between scenes.

The programme is eye catching and contains the necessary information, and the cast were dressed appropriately for their individual characters.

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