Immaculate

In Oliver Lansley's play Immaculate the story centres on a lady called Mia a confident, educated women making a good living as a dominatrix. However since her boyfriend, Michael left a year ago, she hasn’t had  sex so it is quite a shock when she wakes up one morning  and  realises she is six months pregnant, the Angel Gabriel arrives and provides an explanation claiming that the pregnancy is an immaculate conception. The situation quickly becomes confused when three more potential fathers claim paternity: one is Mia’s ex-boyfriend, another is a contemporary from school who nobody liked, and the third is Lucifer himself.

I must admit I was a little worried when I saw the warnings about the strong language and some “rather proper rude bits” included in this play but I have to say I need not have worried as I thoroughly enjoyed my evening’s entertainment and I was not offended at all, which I believe was mostly due to the excellent polished performances produced by the actors who were well supported by the stage crew and directed by the versatile Cliff Gillies. The central and demanding role of Mia was played outstandingly by Helen Haygarth, she very rarely left the stage and produced a very strong performance which was very important to the success of this play. Chloe Hughes was Mia’s best friend Rebecca who as part of her libretto had a wonderfully funny long speech which was spoken quickly with very little breathing, a task she excelled at resulting in a spontaneous applause from the audience. Cliff Gillies as Michael, Mia’s ex-boyfriend gave us some very funny comedic moments and lovely facial expressions which could be seen easily in the intimate setting of the Bold Hotel. The other protagonist and claimants to paternity or knowledge of the paternity of Mia’s baby was the sometimes confused Gabriel (Mark Haygarth), Lucifer (Rob Derby) who was quite  upset at being labeled the Fallen Angel and the wonderfully nerdy Gary Goodman (Peter Roney),and also as an added bonus to help the audience make sense of the farcical happenings there were two chorus members played by Tracy Holmes- Smith and Joanne Wasilew, who spoke together in comedic rhyme, they reminded me very much of the chorus from an ancient Greek tragedy for example Aeschylus ‘s Oresteia  as they also wore masks.  All the actors in this production gave excellent performances producing some very funny diverse characters which they maintained throughout the play, working together as a team with superb comic timing which is essential in this type of production. During the play there were some intimate moments when members of the cast spoke directly to the audience, these interludes were very well done and made you feel they were speaking to your personally.  The pace of the action was spot on, diction and clarity of words were excellent meaning the story could be followed easily and all the cast appeared to be enjoying themselves during the production.

There wasn't any scenery but the scene was set by the use of props along with sound and lighting which were more than suitable for the play and the intimate venue.

Congratulations to the Director Cliff Gillies and to all involved in this excellent production, thank you for the invitation and making us welcome, we had a very enjoyable evening and I look forward to seeing you for your next production.
 

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