Mourning, Nun and Night

MOURNING, NUN & NIGHT was the title chosen for the evening of three short plays, chosen by Silchester Players for their autumn production. These were: “Here Endeth The First Lesson” by Stewart Auty, “Properly Processed” by Lynne Brittney and “None The Wiser” by Anthony Booth an all were great choices and very different but blended well to provide an evening of thoughtful and enjoyable entertainment.

 The set was practical and with a few swift alterations changed from the Church meeting room, to the Office of the Afterlife and finally the Nun’s house.    The props were excellent and well handled by the cast.  A good deal of trouble had gone into ensuring each character was appropriately dressed in relevant outfits for the first two plays and authentic looking habits for the nuns in the last play.  Lighting and sound throughout the evening was good and well controlled.

Here Endeth the First Lesson - this one act satire, was set at a Church/Parish Council meeting where one person dominates the meeting with his fits of rage (Tony Oliver in fine form) and the rest of the meeting are in on a joke to bring him into line.  They spout all sorts of politically correct reasons for not being able to use a long list of carols for the forthcoming Christmas Service.   There were some great comic moments and strong performances, particularly from Claire Humphreys as the Chairman and Clive Solomons as Vice Chairman.

Properly Processed found us in an unspecified office where Sarah Oliver (as Carol) played a recently deceased government pen-pusher.  The office is where the recently deceased go through processing before being admitted to the afterlife.   This was a very funny satire on the perils of modern bureaucracy (particularly lengthy and complicated forms) and was excellently played out by the cast, Sarah being joined by Rob Whithead and Brian Gillett as the man in charge.  

None the Wiser introduces us to five women, who appear to be nuns, as the curtain went up, but the bright red lipstick was a giveaway that these women were imposters.  They used their innocence as cover for their real occupation as a gang of shoplifters.  But they are at risk of being discovered when two “real” nuns knock on their door. What follows was worthy of an episode of Faulty Towers with misunderstandings and mishaps aplenty and we realised that the two newcomers are up to the same business!   There were some great exchanges between Jill Gillett (as Vera) and Mari Fleming (as Angela) as they both try to conceal their true nature which leads to a great, and very funny, confrontation and conclusion.

This was an evening where the content, production team of Keith Graham and Jill Gillett ) together with the performers combined to provide the audience with entertainment of the highest possible standard.

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