Comedy Double Bill

After a break of ten years Menston Thespians decided to try their hand at producing a play
again and I am so pleased they did.
Because this was done as an experiment to see if there was a call for drama, they decided to
perform in a smaller space rather than the usual hall of the Community Centre and this too
was a risk. As anyone who has performed will know to do this in a relatively small room
results in the cast being able to see their audience and indeed the whites of their eyes which
can result in some nerves dropping in.
They need not however have any worries on this as all the cast performed superbly in both
plays and the applause from the audience proved it.
For their first outing in ten years, they decided to produce a comedy double bill, performing
two David Tristram plays, Brenton Vs Brenton and Last Panto in Little Grimley.
The first of the two offerings, Brenton Vs Brenton is set in the office of a top advertising
company and it tells of the tempestuous lives of the Brenton family with all the infighting
which could easily grace the scenes of a soap opera.
Deke Brenton, played superbly by Adam Nabarro-Steel, was hardly off the stage but that did
not stop him from delivering his lines perfectly. In the play we see Brett Howard as Deke’s
assistant played effortlessly by Olive Nabarro-Steel. Deke has a daughter, Foxglove who has
some additional needs, this is not a character easily portrayed as you don’t want to offend
anyone but at the same time the actor needs to get the message over about the character’s
needs. Sophie Paget was excellent in this character, just having the right amount of disability
so as not to go over the top. The mother of Foxglove and ex-wife of Deke is the money
grabbing Lana Kirby played by Emma Nabarro-Steel, we also see Lana’s sister, Tilda Kirby
who is a lawyer, working for both Deke and Lane, dependant on who pays the most money.
Tilda was played by Victoria Broadbent, again a brilliant performance, finally we see Deke’s
first wife, Blanche De Ville, a very over the top extravert played superbly by Steve Gillett-
Place.
The second of the Comedy Double Bill was Last Panto in Little Grimley, anyone who has
seen any of the “Little Grimley” plays will know immediately how funny they are and here
was no exception.
If I were to describe this as over the top acting, questionable singing and having a bad stage
manager you would think I was being very rude and scathing of the performance, but this is
just what the Little Grimley plays ask for.
We see the members of the Little Grimley Players both having a meeting to discuss their next
production and also rehearsing for it.
As the lights go up, we see Joyce played by Claire Wright-Paget practicing her “singing,” and
I use quotation marks as her singing in this piece was not pleasant to the ears as pointed out
by Gill, the writer/director of the panto. Claire was perfect for this role as she was able to get
every ounce of comedy from her character, as did the rest of the cast. Gill was played with ease by Sarah Lee, who was able to give the air of authority on anything she talked about as well as putting people in their place when called for, and sometimes when not called for.

Another aspiring actor in this is Margaret played by Sarah Hobson, who thinks she is a little
above the rest when it comes to acting, again Sarah was able to portray her character
superbly.
The final character is Bernard who is usually the stage manager and lighting technician at the
Little Grimley theatre. Initially Bernard is nowhere to be seen, however after a number of
calls for him we find he is lying under a flat of scenery which has crashed down on him.
Bernard was played by Matt Hardin who was able to show off his knowledge, or lack of,
about all things theatre.
As I said earlier these two piece were performed in a very small space with the audience
where the footlights would normally have been, this could easily have phased some actors but
the ones we see here in both plays were able to show how good they are and deliver the
goods much to the delight of the audience.
Both plays were directed by Rob Gillett-Place who also provided the sound, lighting was by
Rob Finlay, props Vicky Hannam and Emily Newitt as prompt.

Thank you for a great evening’s entertainment, I look forward to seeing many more.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.