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I am not sure that I can say that I enjoyed this play. The subject of institutionalised living can be uncomfortable to say the least, no matter where the setting. At the beginning, the meeting of characters Harry and Jack, played by Hugh Farey and David Pollard, seemed just that; two gentlemen meeting on their daily constitutional walk, passing the time and discussing their respective wives and home matters. It slowly dawned on us that they were in fact living in what was probably a home for psychiatric patients with varying degrees of paranoia and dementia.

This was confirmed when the men leave the stage to be replaced by Amanda Perkins and Charlotte Bull as Kathleen and Marjorie, whose loquacious interaction was sad, ironic but strangely humorous. Added to this was the final character Alfred played by Graham Bull who had a limited vocabulary, but his constant response when asked what he was doing of “nuttin” in a Liverpudlian accent also brought a chuckle from the audience.

This was not an easy play to perform by any means; there were lots of suspended sentences, um’s and ah’s and anecdotes started but never finished. This did make it difficult for the actors as at times, there were no feed lines to pick up on, resulting in pregnant pauses and the odd prompt; Understandably so as this was an incredibly wordy script and this did impact somewhat on the pace, which was a shame.

Hugh Farey was very convincing as Harry and David Pollard made a good Jack. Charlotte and Graham Bull are new to the Conquest and I am sure we will see them in many future productions. Amanda Perkins was very good and had invested in her character both with her mannerisms and accent making her tragically funny. However, I felt, this play went nowhere; there was no conclusion and although I am sure was the intention, only served as an observation into the sad lives of the characters which made me sad too. I would like to say I came away entertained but unfortunately this wasn’t the case no matter how well the play was executed.

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