Ladies Day

“Ladies’ Day” – a wonderful play with laughter and pathos in equal measures, giving us a glimpse into the ups and downs of the lives of four fish-filleting ladies, Pearl, Jan, Shelley, and Linda, where life is one long slog. Their daily conversations consist of what they had for tea, what they watched on TV and lots of friendly banter.  

Pearl, who is finishing work but not retiring, as she keeps reminding her friends, treats the girls to “Ladies’ Day” at Ascot (which this year is being held at York). Ditching their working gear of hairnets, overalls, and plastic shoe covers they all get dolled up for a day at the races. The ladies would love to mix with the hoi polloi, but none of them have sufficient money to buy the enclosure tickets. Their fortunes then turn when Linda finds four enclosure tickets allowing them into the special enclosure. They gamble what money they have on an accumulator that keeps on winning, with only one more win before a possible jackpot.

As the story progresses, we discover a lot more about each of these ladies, their secrets and hopes for a better life. All the ladies were excellent in their very different, challenging, and realistic roles, with varying emotions taking us on a journey through their lives. 

Pearl, played by Andrea Howard, is a level-headed woman who has been harbouring a secret for seven years that she has a lover, Barry. Suddenly he disappears out of her life; she cannot forget him and gets very emotional thinking about him. She hopes that she will find him at the races. Andrea gave a first-class performance of this character. 

Edwina Gascoyne’s characterisation of Jan was wonderful. Jan’s life revolves around her daughter, Clare, and not much else.  While at the races Jan drinks too much champagne and Edwina’s timing of being drunk was spot on. However, Jan’s life is about to change when she lets us know her feelings for Joe, the supervisor at the fish factory. One of the many good lines which was repeated several times, and which always got a laugh was “What did y’have for tea?”. Edwina’s facial expressions were perfect.

Charlie Gascoyne gave an excellent performance as the confident Shelley and her mannerisms and body language all suited this loud character. However, underneath she is going through a tough time. Shelley is unable to keep control of her money, is in debt and knows that she can never pay it all off. She would love to be a rich man’s wife and she often dreams of this.

Danni Birks-Hibbert gave a superb performance as the awkward, naïve, and not-so-bright Linda. This is a lady with no confidence in life, herself and whose mother takes advantage of her as and when she chooses. Linda takes solace in the music of Tony Christie, but her life is about to change for the better. By chance, she meets a jockey, Patrick, and Linda’s confidence in herself, and life grows stronger.  There was an obvious change in characterisation from Danni between playing the Linda we first meet at the beginning of the play through to the final scene.

The day at the races didn’t finish as the ladies had hoped and they lost all their winnings on the last race. In a fit of temper Shelley threw away the accumulator ticket.

There were splendid performances from all the following actors:  Rod Duncan played Joe with ease as the kind and gentle factory supervisor in love with Jan, but never letting her know. He was leaving to go to Australia, but when at long last Jan got the courage to tell him of her feelings for him, would he stay? John Fereday was very good as Jim McCormack, a TV pundit who tried to take advantage of Shelley’s eagerness to become a celebrity.                            John Moran was Patrick, the jockey who just wanted a good meal but couldn’t have one due to strict jockey rules. Upon meeting Linda, they start talking about their lives being controlled by other people and with empathy and understanding  for each other their lives start to turn around for the better.  Lovely dialogue between Patrick and Linda. Justin Harrison took on the role as Fred, a ticket tout, with John Jex as Kevin the drunken gambler.                                                                      Ian Brownlee was Barry, Pearl’s true love. He came and found Pearl but was she just imagining him? It eventually transpired that Barry didn’t simply just leave her as she thought. Instead, he had had a heart attack and unfortunately did not survive. Before they finally parted with one last dance, he picked up the discarded accumulator ticket and gave it back to her. A very touching scene. 

Next day the ladies were back at their boring jobs and dreaming of what life would be like if they had won. But it turns out that there was a stewards’ inquiry after the last race and the horse they had backed had won after all. If Barry had not given the ticket back to Pearl, they would not have been able to claim their winnings. They were rich! What a brilliant ending when all the ladies leapt into the air. 

Phil Gascoyne must be congratulated on this first-class, well-directed and thought-out production. The cast gave confident performances, and the pace of the dialogue was perfect. The costumes worked well for the characters and looked perfect for the “Ladies’ Day”. The set, props, and scene changes worked like clockwork and the music which accompanied the play was perfect. Thanks to the magic of technology and back-projection we were transported straight to the York races – amazing! Congratulations to the technical team.

Thank you for the invite and a great evening out - enjoyed not only by myself, but also the audience as was clear by their singing of “Is this the Way to Amarillo”

 

 

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.