Ladies Who Lunch

There are many plays available for drama groups to perform, but it's often difficult to find one that ticks all the boxes in terms of a society's membership, talents and audience appeal.

The Digswell Player’s choice of Ladies Who Lunch by Tudor Gates, was perfect for this experienced cast.

The setting was three different locations, the homes of three very rich couples in London, New York and Sydney.

There, the wives of three of the world's richest men met to pursue their charity work for Save Our Starving, their favourite charity. Never the less, all does not go according to plan.

As the aforementioned rich husbands, Chris White (Sir John Sasson) turned in a smooth and convincing performance befitting his status, while Peter McIntyre (Ken Stocks) in contrast conveyed his more down to earth and flash character well and Stuart Carnegie (Harry Milchan) effectively brought out the angst in his character. All three had excellent diction and good voice projection along with convincing accents.

But it was the actors playing the parts of the wives who had to carry the production, and Diana Holt as Lady Amelia Sasson gave an accomplished performance with excellent delivery and expertly held many of the wordy scenes together.

Mary Goodfellow (Joane Stocks) created a super, larger-than-life and colourful character and maintained a convincing Australian accent - not easy.

After a rather understated start, Elaine Savage (Rachel Milchan) settled well into her role and all three ladies contrasted well both visually and vocally.

Kat Peacock (Gerry Sasson) gave us a believable, stroppy teenager with attitude and Sandra Mantella (Ms D.L. Wallis) and a somewhat confident but creepy, investigator, complete with strong East Side drawl. Well done.

The set was ingenious, with sliding panels that revealed the different locations and a stage crew that worked as if by magic, altering the small stage to produce a different room in each location. Pictures, phones and even the soft furnishings were all changed in a choreographed sweeping movement across the stage and all in a matter of seconds.

The cast were well rehearsed and the delivery good. This was an enjoyable production - congratulations.

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