Getting Away From It All

The Show entitled Getting Away From It All comprised two short plays.

Front of House was welcoming and efficient with the option to buy raffle tickets from an adjacent table. The venue only seats around sixty people and on the night was three quarters full of an appreciative audience.

The programme was basic but included all the relevant information, including the NODA logo on the front.

There were introductions to both plays in appropriately themed music and two sound effects with minimal lighting but all was in keeping with the plays. The sets were excellent, especially as the stage is, to say the least, bijou.

The first play, All by Myself, was about a castaway on a desert island who discovers after 7 years that he is not alone. As the saga unfolds we find that there are others who have been there even longer but are waiting to find out if the 'newcomer' is in fact compatible to their community. After various travails they build a raft but at the last minute the 'newcomer' decides to let them go without him as he wants to enjoy the solitude. Unfortunately, as they sail off into the sunset, they reveal that there are at least another twenty people on the Island. Cue gnashing of teeth.

There were shades of the Monty Python’s, Four Yorkshiremen sketch but nevertheless it worked well.

The five actors all brought their own individuality to this production and apart from the Pepper Pots regulars, the debut of Julie Stonestreet, was quite impressive. The cast were extremely audible throughout and the humour came across well.

A creditable directorial debut by Nick Turvey, who cast his wife in the lead.

The other offering was You're in Room Eight and tells the story of an extremely overbearing and chauvinistic husband and his repressed wife. Forced to spend the night in, what he considers to be, a third rate hotel, he vents his spleen on his wife, the hotel manager and the hotel manager’s wife. As he gets more vociferous and frustrated by what he sees as their inadequacies the other three start to come into their own. When he admits that he has secretly organised a surprise anniversary break he does, at last, engender a modicum of sympathy from the audience. 

An entertaining, if frustrating, performance on behalf of the husband (Peter Farrin), but most credit must go to the hotel manager’s wife (Sue Clark) whose small but pivotal role was the most memorable as she managed to get a lot of humour from a limited amount of lines

The set was excellent and the inclusion of a double bed which took a up a sizeable piece of the stage worked well.

Once again, a creditable directorial debut from Mike Chapple.

All in all, it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening and the timing of the production, at end of January, was ideal.

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