Ladies' Day

This is a play I am very familiar with, having directed it 4 years ago. I like this heart-warming comedy about 4 working class women who go to Ladies' Day at York races, where revelations are made and friendships are tested.

The curtains opened onto the fish-packing plant in Hull, where the 4 women work. Scenery was sparse but very effective, with plain pale blue flats and back-drop, a central table for fish packing, and other factory paraphernalia. The 'fish' were very realistic and the 'filleting' was cleverly done behind a box so that we could not see that they weren't real. This opening scene establishes the character of each of the women, and places us firmly in the working class culture of the North-east, by use of strong accents and banter. The accents were well-maintained throughout, and the relative status of the characters was well-demonstrated.

All of the male characters in this play are played by one actor, and he makes his first appearance in the opening scene as Joe, the ladies' supervisor, who has an easy, friendly relationship with the women. Each of the female characters has her chance to shine, and these opportunities were generally well taken. The four actresses seemed relaxed and gave the impression of having been close workmates for some time.

The change of scene from fish-packing plant to the racecourse involves the women changing on stage whilst singing to 'Amarillo', and this was performed well, in particular the difficult business of getting wellies off and high heels on, although it required Joe to walk across the front of the line of women to place the shoes, which rather intruded into the choreography. The scene change itself, with items moved on and off, was very smoothly and swiftly done, to reveal the racecourse with a painted back cloth and 2 central blackboards showing racing odds. These boards remained on stage for the remaining race course scenes and formed an 'entrance' which worked well in initial scenes, but unfortunately limited the amount of acting space to a relatively small down-stage area. This caused difficulties as the play progressed as actors' moves became somewhat repetitive.  In the early race course scene there was a small table and 2 chairs down stage left, but these were removed, which was a shame, as it meant actors were unable to sit through the rest of the play, further limiting the actors' options.

The costumes were well fitting and appropriate. The white overalls and hairnets in the first scene served to hide the finery of the race course outfits, all of which were colourful and well-suited to each character. Hats were well chosen so as not to cover faces. Props were minimal but well handled and authentic.

This is a very witty script with a lot of one-liners which rely on good pace and timing (for some reason, comedy always works best when it is delivered fast). At times the punch lines were over-pointed instead of being 'thrown away' and this meant that the speed of delivery slowed and the rhythm of the speech was lost.  There was also some insecurity of lines and an over-reliance on the prompt, which adversely affected the pace.

Whilst the action in this play is not continuous, it is written to have minimal breaks between scenes. This production used a mixture of low-lighting, blackouts and sound effects for different scene changes. Perhaps keeping the scene changes a little more uniform, with either a simple lighting change or sound effect would have aided the pace and continuity.

Sound effects were appropriate, although the horse racing sounds at the start of each act were a little soft. The music that Barry and Pearl dance to, conversely, was a little loud and started rather abruptly, detracting slightly from a rather poignant moment. It could have been enhanced if the music had faded up at this point. The slight echo on Jim's microphone worked well, and his off stage commentary was good. The lighting created the correct atmosphere. The final bows were performed to a reprise of Amarillo, and this was a suitable upbeat ending to an entertaining evening.

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