Ladies Day

 “Ladies Day” is a very poignant and funny comedy written by Amanda Whittington. It is the story of four fish factory workers - Pearl (Carol Buckley), Jan (Kate Allen) Shelley (Kym Ratcliffe), and Linda (Emma Redmond) who have worked together for a number of years. Pearl is leaving to spend more time with her husband - not retiring, as she points out. She decides to celebrate with a girls outing to Royal Ascot Ladies' Day which has been relocated to York for that particular year. It is a tale of thwarted ambitions, secrets, heartache and friendships, mixed with enough alcohol to loosen the tongue and also the tension of a bet on the Tote’s large jackpot.

This was a very enjoyable production Produced by Lorraine Ratcliffe who was very fortunate to have some very talented actors at her disposal. I think it would be unfair to single out individual performances, as they all suited their roles and performed very well together, working as a team with no weak links. The audience were entertained by a number of very enjoyable extremely different characters, and getting these spot on is vital to the success of this play a task the cast achieved extremely effectively. Their comic timing and facial expressions were very good which is also crucial in this type of production. Dialogue flowed easily at just the right pace; diction was excellent from all on stage, although there were some prompts taken, but I am glad to say they did not impinge on the flow of the libretto. The set was minimalistic yet innovative; it is surprising what can be achieved by just turning a board round or upending a prop and adding some chairs. Costumes suited the roles well and added to the characterizations, well done to all backstage workers and crew. The result was a production of very fine comedy, combined with some very poignant background stories which provided a most enjoyable entertaining evening for the audience to experience.

Well done and congratulations to all involved in this production and thank you for inviting me I had a extremely enjoyable evening.
Patricia Connor

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