Ladies' Day

‘Ladies’ Day’ follows four likely lasses from the Hull fish docks on a day trip to the races. Work, love and life are just one long, hard slog for the fish-filleting foursome Pearl, Jan, Shelley and Linda. But their fortunes are set to change when Linda finds tickets to Ladies' Day at Royal Ascot the year it relocated to York.

The play opens in the fish factory, with a working bench, racking and some fish boxes . In the opening scene with the four ladies behind their bench, in their white coats, hat and wellies, individual characters were quickly established and as Pearl was leaving the company, they decided on a day at the races to celebrate and this was agreed with their supervisor Joe, played well by Tom Farley. Their glamorous outfits fit for Ladies’ Day were revealed from their fish boxes, as they changed on stage to ‘Is this the way to Amarillo’. Throughout Claire Hadland (Pearl), Tracey Mann (Jan), Helen Deeming (Shelley) and Jo Rush (Linda) gave convincing performances as we discovered some sadness as well as excitement in their lives.

On arrival at York, the set was transformed and the girls soon realised that without tickets they would be at the mercy of the ticket tout. They met Fred, one such tout played by Tom, but the girls were saved when they found a purse containing four tickets and no sign of the real owner.  Shelley never short of an opinion and always looking for stardom, attracts the attention of a smooth operator TV pundit Jim McCormack, well played by Tim Williams in a  loud check suit with a touch of sleaze.

In act 2 we meet Patrick, a jockey, who felt sorry for himself with all the things a jockey has to suffer, including (with a chuckle) keeping his weight below 8st 4lbs! His connection with Linda is absorbing and Tim Williams had some great comedy timing – the scene when he recalls a great win at the age of 21 years was also absorbing, supported by a nice change in lighting that helped relight the memory. The scenes where Jim convinces Shelley ‘a star is born’ albeit he has ulterior motives, and where Jan tells of her fondness for Joe their supervisor, were well played. At a point when the girls have yet to win anything, they take pity on Kevin a drunk gambler, also played well by Tom Farley and gave him his train fare home.

We discover that Pearl has been having an affair with Barry a bookie, for 7 years but he suddenly disappeared 3 months earlier without explanation. Her story is convincing and she hopes to find him whilst at the races. Although Barry appears (Tim Williams), we get a sense she is imagining a conversation which she had hoped to have with him, and this was well handled by both players as he then drifts away from the scene into the wings. A sensitive moment.

There were a few lapses in continuity, but the production enabled visibility of each aspect of each character, which were enjoyed by the audience. The stage was well lit, the characters well dressed and I enjoyed the occasional projection and the music played at appropriate moments, that added to the atmosphere. Congratulations to all involved.

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