Entertaining Angels

Second Thoughts Drama Group can always be relied upon for an interesting choice of production, and they have done it again with Entertaining Angels.  Richard Everett’s play, previously unknown to me, was premiered at the Chichester Festival in 2006, with Penelope Keith in the lead role of Grace.  It’s an interesting, engaging comedy drama, exploring themes of grief, betrayal, and religion, balancing humour with a real emotional impact.  The Sunday Times said of the original production that it was like an Ayckbourn play finished by J.M. Barrie, which certainly chimes with my own view coming out of Second Thoughts’ well-acted and enjoyable production.

Entertaining Angels tells the story of Grace, a vicar’s wife struggling to cope following the death of her husband, Bardy.  She sees and talks to what appears at first to be an imaginary version of her deceased husband, although at the end we were invited to conclude that he was actually his ghost, or spirit, trapped in limbo until the matter of his brief affair with Grace’s sister Ruth is exposed and resolved.  That affair, and the son who resulted, provides the backdrop for the family drama that plays out between Grace, her daughter Jo, and Ruth.  Further complication is provided by Sarah, the new vicar (amusingly mistaken for a vicar’s wife by Grace), whose family story provides a parallel to that of Ruth and Bardy, albeit with a different outcome. 

Jane Grafton gave a very accomplished performance as Grace, emerging clearly from Penelope Keith’s long shadow and giving the role a distinctness of her own.  She made the most of the many witty lines that the script offers her character, and also managed the emotional notes very successfully.  Jane had previously played this role for Blockley Amateur Dramatic Company, and her confidence and ease in the part was clear to see.  Alongside her was another Blockley alumnus, Charles Redman, who invested Bardy with a gentle wit and eccentricity – every inch the country vicar – but with a clearly defined intellect always visible underneath. 

As Grace’s sister Ruth, ever-reliable Second Thoughts regular Gill Hines brought out the worry and frustration of a character who has been harbouring a secret for thirty years.  She and Jane had good onstage chemistry – it was easy to believe that these were sisters with a lifetime of unresolved bickering and rivalry behind them.  Zoe Mortimer played Grace’s daughter Jo with a clear, confident forthrightness, her character effectively taking on the role of parent as her own elders collapse around her.  Tracy Humphries also did well with the tricky role of Sarah – an interloper in the family story but with her own secrets to confront.

All of the cast, and the directing team, are to be congratulated for delivering not only the humour but also the emotional heft that this play demanded.  The latter scenes, in which revelation piles upon revelation, were expertly handled and I really felt the emotion come through in a very realistic way. 

Director Jo Knight explained in her programme notes that the team made the decision to soften the characterisation of Grace, to make her more sympathetic to the audience than had been the case in Keith’s version, which received some criticism that the character was hard to like.  This approach was certainly successful in terms of making the character likeable, as we immediately warmed to Grace’s witty personality and wry refusal to sugar-coat things.  However, I did feel that this change in characterisation rendered the approach of some of the other characters harder to understand and made them seem – to me at least – unnecessarily harsh.  It was odd to see a woman who has just discovered her husband’s infidelity being harangued for a lack of forgiveness.  Perhaps those elements would have made more sense had Grace been a stonier character.

The play was simply staged, in the round with two well-lit acting areas representing the vicarage garden and a stream out in the grounds.  The stream was represented by strips of light at either side of the acting area, a waterside tree stump and sound effect of running water, along with some imaginary stepping stones which the cast (bar the spectral Bardy) jumped across on entering and exiting the scene.  I liked that this action was maintained throughout, even when the characters were in a hurry.  The vicarage garden featured a nice selection of wicker furniture, and a greenhouse was neatly outlined in one corner.  Costumes were well chosen and suitable for the period and setting, and were used effectively to indicate whether Bardy was in ‘imaginary’ or ‘flashback’ mode.

Congratulation to all at Second Thoughts for a thoroughly entertaining and thought-provoking evening of theatre.  Many thanks for the warm welcome and the opportunity to chat during the evening – it’s always a pleasure to visit you.  I look forward to seeing you all later in the year, for more ghostly goings-on with Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit. 

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