Ladies Day

Amanda Whittington’s light-hearted, popular comedy about four Yorkshire fish factory workers who put on their Sunday best to celebrate one of them leaving and go to Ladies’ Day at Royal Ascot the year it transfers to York Racecourse, to mix with the rich and famous.  On paper it seems an easy play, however it requires great rapport and comedic timing between the four main actresses and in the hands of Director Steph Hamer, HDC certainly did that.

The initial set to depict the fish factory floor under the stage management of the Director herself was to blacks with two trestle tables, upon which were fish boxes and fish which the ladies were gutting, with the polystyrene boxes piled up in the background. Simple but very effective. I was particularly impressed by the way they went about their work, gutting and filleting the fish as if they had been doing it all their lives. When we came to the racecourse scene we had a magnificent backdrop of a racecourse with a grandstand in the background. However, it was basically a still photo taken during a race showing the horses in full gallop passing the winning post, which personally I did find a little odd for a scene setting backdrop depicting all the coming and goings taking place at Royal Ascot.  My wife however loved it – so this really was horses for courses!!

Sound and lighting by Martin Avery (lighting design by Max Richardson) was pretty much faultless with sound and light cues all spot-on time, volumes at just right level for the hall and both enhancing the action without a hitch. Excellent job!

Costumes by Sarah Stammler and Trish Brook were very well thought out. For the fish factory uniforms they all had white coats with hairnets and kitchen clogs as you would expect in a food processing environment, which contrasted very well with their Ladies’ Day outfits. They weren’t quite Ascot enough by the standard of the normal rich race going crowd, but very much what these working-class lasses would have put together in their efforts to emulate the rich and famous and look their very best, from Shelleys yellow fitted pencil skirt dress to Jan’s rich red dress and lacy black bolero wrap, to Linda’s denim jacket. Their hats were particularly good and very personality-defining for each character. The contrast between the two environments highlighted the slight awkwardness of their, pardon the pun, “fish out of water” outfits for Ascot.

The first thing to say about the acting is that the Yorkshire accents were extremely well done. Being a southerner I’m no expert, but my other half, a northerner, was most impressed. And not once did their accents falter.

The banter dialogue between them was particularly well done. The easy flowing conversation with obvious light-hearted digs at each other and particularly at Joe the Factory Manager, which Whittington’s script has in abundance was fast paced, sublimely delivered and very funny.

Josephine Hussey as Pearl, the oldest but most together of the four, whose character outwardly appears to have less chinks and vulnerability in it than the other three, really came into her own with her surreal but very poignant and memorable scene with her secret lover Barry, perfectly pitched by Stuart Nunn.

Eleanor Greaves as Shelley, the brassy one of the four, really came across as the fun-loving, shopaholic character, seeking fame and fortune to the amusing incredulity of the other three, but with a massive debt problem to solve.

Jo Travers as Jan the frustrated one in both her personal and work life, gave us one of the funniest drunk scenes you could ever see. The way she kept putting her finger to her lips as if trying to shut herself up as she drunkenly tells Pearl’s secret to the others was a masterclass in how to do inebriated!

Jennie Osborne as Linda, probably the most vulnerable of the four characters, put her across with both humour and pathos of the highest order, with a deep understanding of the character.

Russell Bailley as the Factory Manager Joe showed the character’s more humourous side in his banter with the four ladies, and then then took on the contrasting part of the sleezy ticket tout.

Christopher Hall as the TV commentator Jim McCormack, perfectly showed us this two-faced sleezy character as he tries it on with Shelley. When it comes to Irish accents, I ask myself is Miles Greves actually from the Emerald Isle? If not his fabulous portrayal of Patrick the Irish Jockey certainly convinced the audience he was. And finally Dean Laccohee’s excellent portrayal of the drunk Kevin added the finishing touches to a magnificent set of well-studied characters.

Huntingdon Drama Club is exactly that - a drama society that specialises in putting on high quality works of drama, and this production can only enhance that reputation, with a thoroughly enjoyable production, deep understanding of the characters portrayed and very well directed by Steph Hamer. So well done indeed to Steph and her cast and crew.  And a special thanks to whoever finally organised Air Conditioning in the Commemoration Hall on what was a very steamy night. It was very much appreciated!

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