Hloiday Snap

A very unexpected start to this Comedy written by Michael Pertwee and John Chapman, with Commander Chittenden making his entrance with no dialogue for a few minutes except for his talking on a dictaphone.

Robert Easom played this character very well, a sort of estate manager in the holiday rental business,more than happy to accept several drinks along the way, and generally getting very confused at all the comings and goings of guests all apparently booked in the same week, with a combination of names which he had great difficulty in sorting out.

The first arrivals were Leslie and Eve, played by James Hooker and Charlotte Root.

I felt the pace of the dialogue between these two characters started rather tentatively but gained pace ,and both did well in main character roles.

James looked very youthful and it fitted against Charlotte playing a rather more worldly character in the complicated twosome.

We then had the arrival of Henry and Mary(Paul Welham and Tracy Lias)two very experienced actors with great dialogue beautifully placed, it lifted the production tremendously.Very good timing and facial expressions as well.

All through the complications Commander Chittenden tried to work out the relationships and generally managed to get it hopelessly wrong causing embarrasment to all.

Then Henry’s Mother in Law Celia arrived,played by another stalwart in the society Brenda-White-Robinson, as a rather posh upstanding lady of some quality.

Due to the fact that Mary was not her daughter, all efforts were made to keep her identity as that of a Hungarian housemaid with hilarious situations all round.Brenda was very convincing in this role and again the timing of lines were very good with clear diction..

At a much later stage in the play Perky arrived (played by newcomer to the society) Shaun Potter and literally a one liner at the very end from Henry’s real wife Kit played by Rosemary Sturgis.

The set as always was excellent with attention to detail and good quality furnishings,also the lighting really added much to the production.

Also a very well laid out Programme with a lot of information in general.

A good choice at this time of the year and a very entertaining play.

Well done to Gary on his second role as Director with the company.

I look forward to the Autumn’s production of “Rebecca” and thank you for your warm welcome and hospitality which is always appreciated.

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