Ladies Day

I have seen several performances of the play “Ladies Day” written by Amanda Whittington, but I can honestly say the latest offering from Wigan Little Theatre was up there with the best as it was an outstanding polished production. Directed by Christine Armstrong this play is a feel-good comedy drama centred around four fish factory workers from Hull named Shelley, Linda, Jan and Pearl, who is leaving the factory to spend more time with her husband, but stresses she is not retiring, to celebrate she would like to go the races for a day, so the four of them take a trip to Ladies day at Royal Ascot the year it relocated to York. But as the day progresses, we witness and are party to confessions of unexpected secrets, stories of broken relationships, concealed heartache and thwarted ambitions, but we also see that there is a lasting and supportive friendship between all four women.

The very talented cast gave excellent performances in their very different roles producing some wonderful individual characters, with very good comic timing and lovely poignant acting when required. They worked together as a team with no weak links, which is very important in this type of production as this is an ensemble piece and a good performance from each actor is central to the success of the production. The cast of ladies included Ayesha Morris as the very comedic, would be star Shelly, who doesn’t miss any opportunity to ambush the TV cameras, with Tracy Dawson as devoted single mother Jan, Caroline McCann is the misleadingly happily married Pearl, who confesses to Jan that she has a lover who is a bookie, but unfortunately, he didn't turn up for their last meeting and Stacey Vernon was Linda who is shy but kind-hearted and has an all-consuming passion for Tony Christie, so suggest they choose horses with names similar to his song titles in a six-horse accumulator which may mean that there is a surprise outcome to the day. There were three men in the cast playing several cameo roles, they were John Churnside who produced three very different excellent individual characters, which were Jim McCormick a TV racing pundit, Joe the Fish Factory Supervisor and Barry, Pearl's secret lover. Chris Allen also produced two nice characterisations as Patrick an Irish jockey who meets Linda, which is the start of a promising relationship, he also plays Kevin a drunken gambler and lastly but not least Kevin Shirley played the role of Fred a ticket tout.

The pace of the play was spot-on and diction, accents and projection was very good meaning excellent clarity of words so the story could be followed easily. Costumes were spot-on which probably help the actors with their characterisations and they also added to the comedy.
The main set was minimalistic with a racecourse scene painted on a back cloth and scenes were changed by efficient use of furniture, props and other pieces of movable scenery, which along with good technical input and the playing of those sing along uplifting Tony Christie songs between scenes made a very good platform and atmosphere for the cast to work on, well done to all the backstage and technical crew.

Congratulations must go to Director Christine Armstrong, all the cast and everybody involved in this outstanding production, thank you very much for inviting us we had a very enjoyable evening with you and we look forward to seeing your next production.

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