Duets - 4 Long Act Plays

Four One Act Plays in an evening at the Conservative Club, this is a small venue so I was intrigued as to how they would cope with set changes as there is a tiny stage. I found that there was no worry as they used the floor as well. There was a disappointment in that the fourth scheduled play would not be performed due to illness,

These two handers were written by David Tristram and were very entertaining. The first play was ‘The extraordinary revelations of Orca the Goldfish.’ This was mainly played out on a sofa set on the floor together with various props and Orca the goldfish set in a bowl on a table who, apart from the audience was the only witness to the imaginary life of Henry. Henry never led a dull life whereas his wife Alice led only a dull life, this first play set the standard for the evening. Henry was played by Philip Wagner and this was an outstanding performance, he brought Henry to life, had some great comic lines that were well delivered, a great variety in tone and delivery, a lovely role which he relished. Alice was played by, I presume, Bridget Dumbrell, this was also a great performance and was a nice foil to Henry. Considering that she had quickly taken over this role the flow was seamless and the audience would never have known. These two delivered a continuously great performance, a lot of dialogue for Philip, it was a joy to watch.

Next up was ‘Late Entry’ performed mainly on the small stage, it took me some time to realise what this play was about, Lesley Willmott I thought was only acting as a slightly dotty old lady. It wasn’t until Emma Fitzsimmonds appeared as a Drama Adjudicator that I realised what the play was about. Both these actresses embodied the characters that they were playing, this play was a spoof on a drama festival where Lesley performed an intriguing one act play, with much movement and costume change. Emma was the Adjudicator, quite true to life and it did momentarily give me cause to think of my own role as reviewer. This was a cleverly written piece and well performed by both Lesley and Emma with clear dialogue and entertaining delivery. Lesley also managed to entertain us with her sewing.

The third and final piece for the evening using the stage area as the setting of a pub was ‘Peas,’ the story of two people who for want of a better phrase were guinea pigs for a new dating agency. These two were Gerry – Rodger Bilverstone and Daisy – Karen Nye, as their respective similarities were uncovered, or not as the case may be. This was another piece where the interaction between the characters was well developed with good delivery of the humour, timing was good and vocalisation clear and distinct (sorry just the one prompt). This was a shorter piece but none the less entertaining.

All three pieces were well performed, the actors knew how to deliver the humour with great timing, dialogue was clear, all three pieces kept the attention of the audience. Sets were minimal but no worse for that, not many props or set dressing, but as with Costumes what was used were appropriate and such incidental music as there was, was appropriate.

It was nice to see Swaffham Players continuing with drama following last years production of ‘A Bunch of Amateurs’

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