Cheshire Cats

Not a play I have heard of before, but the whole play was very well put together by director Holly Barker who bought the best out of everybody and everything along the way, with some nice touches throughout. There were always sound effects (Hollie Simmonds Steer) happening in the background, but so subtly that you didn’t realise, but it made all the difference - with the birds twittering in the park, the sounds of the London streets, making the whole thing seem so realistic. Well-done Hollie. Some good mood lighting by Jacob Spann; costumes (Janice Brookes) were good too.

Cheshire Cats is very wordy for all, and the cast, especially for the five leading ladies, Lauren Carden, Samantha Ward, Lisa Thoughton, Tanya Knight, Rebecca Brown who all coped well with it, especially in their small monologues. Act One was sometimes a little slow, but I put that down to setting the plot. Act Two certainly was upbeat and well done to Terry Fullager for working his audience… He also gave a good cameo part as Ron, along with Madge (Emily Fitton) as the Run Marshalls and not to be forgotten Andrew (Peter Carden) - its difficult to change gender but he succeeded giving us all a titter. Adam Bicknell supported the cast in his two roles as the Drunk and Station Announcer.

All in all a slow start, but it livened up with a fun second act. Well done to all at Avenue Theatre Productions.

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