Confusions

I was warmly welcomed on arrival and was able to discuss the performance at the end with the Director, Chrissie Donegan and most of the cast. I had not seen this work by Alan Ayckbourn before and it was an unusual offering from this society. It consisted of five individual one act plays with each play connected to the next one through one of the characters until the final play. The same group of actors played different roles in more than one play.

The set, designed and built by the society was bare and minimal with props, mainly table, chairs and settee being moved on and off stage as needed. Costumes were appropriate to the characters Sound levels were good with the cast being heard clearly and all actors projecting well. Good use of lighting enhanced the set.

The different roles and situations in each play required the actors to rapidly switch characters which often entailed a costume change and this small and talented society rose to the challenge remarkably well. The pace at times was frantic and to, the actors’ credit all went well!

Mother Figure. Three actors only in this first play, Sara Talbot-Ashby as Lucy, Liz McLeod as Rosemary and Greg McDowell as Terry, Rosemary’s husband. It was fascinating to observe the dynamics here with a seeming role reversal as Sara changed from neurotic mother to a domineering neighbour treating Rosemary and Terry as children. There was plenty of humour here with chauvinist Terry forced to drink milk from a baby’s bottle!

Drinking Companion. Four actors in this play with Rob Porter as Harry the drunken salesman away from home, flirting unsuccessfully with Katie Wallace, as Paula and Sara Talbot-Ashby as Bernice, two friends receiving the unwelcome attentions of Rob. Katherine Johnson was the waitress with wonderful facial expressions revealing her views of the situation. Good acting here.

Between Mouthfuls. This play was probably the most demanding of the five plays with Katherine Johnson as a waitress again, Greg McDowell and Liz McLeod as Mr and Mrs Pearce and Jake Clover and Katie Wallace as Martin and Polly. Two couples with deep seated issues bubbling to the surface! First class acting here with the couples seated at separate tables taking it in turn to talk and mime simultaneously. Not easy to achieve and split second timing was essential. Katherine’s expressions told the audience exactly what she thought of the situation!

Gosforth’s Fete ,This play was farcical and hilarious. Could anything else go wrong? Rob Porter was Gosforth, a bumptious know-it-all publican with Sara Talbot-Ashby as Milly, Liz McLeod as Mrs Pearce again, Greg McDowell as the rather hapless Vicar and Jake Clover as the drunk Scout Leader. The fete was a total disaster ending with Mrs Pearce being electrocuted by the PA system.

A Talk In The Park, The final play involved five characters all trying to talk with the next person on the bench but not willing to listen to others concerns. Arthur,( Greg McDowell,) Beryl, (Katie Wallace,) Charles, (Rob Porter,) Doreen, (Katherine Johnson) and Ernest, (Jake Clover), all brought out common themes of loneliness and relationship issues.

This was a challenging production demanding versatile and talented actors and all performed extremely well. Congratulations to Director Chrissie Donegan for bringing this to life and well done to everyone involved in any way. Your audience enjoyed the humour and farce and appreciated the underlying sentiments.

 

 

 

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