How The Other Half Loves

Thurrock Courts Players have remained faithful to their roots with this production of Alan Ayckbourn’s play. They have a great pool of excellent actors to call on for their productions and it was a real pleasure to watch this performance.

The six members of the cast were all outstanding and, although the staging is fairly complicated, the story was clearly portrayed, with an excellent sense of timing from everyone. John Scowan played the slightly pompous Frank to perfection and gave us some lovely comedy moments throughout the play. Lisa Chapman was excellent as Fiona his wife, very glamorous. Mike Jones as Bob and Karen Reeves as Teresa, both produced outstanding performances. The accolades, however, must go to Wayne Prince (William) and Victoria Grayling (Mary). Their timing and expressions during the dinner party scene were perfection and gave us a real sense of the situation.

Director Vic Gray had an excellent script to work with, but Alan Ayckbourn’s work can be deceptive, there is always a sting in the way he writes his plays and Vic clearly understood the importance of detail to make sure that the scenes were depicted to the audience without confusion.

I have a great respect for this company because they did not use mics for this performance and, as this theatre has an excellent auditorium for un-mic’d sound they are not usually necessary. But if the actors fail to project then it can be disastrous; thankfully everyone projected well, so we heard all the dialogue. The pace slowed a bit on occasions but not enough to affect the flow and it was quickly picked up again.

The scenery was good, mixing the two rooms in one set can be tricky but it worked well and the costumes were right for the play.

It was lovely to see the auditorium full again for a Players production, long may this continue. We had a thoroughly enjoyable evening, thank you Thurrock Courts Players.

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