Nobody's Perfect

This play is by Simon Williams, well known for various television appearances in shows like Upstairs, Downstairs, Don’t Wait Up and Holby City.

Written at a time when he had a teenage daughter at home (who subsequently featured with Williams in the play’s professional premiere) the story centres round Leonard Loftus, a statistician who submits a story he has written to a publisher called Love Is All Around – only for his book to be rejected as she will only accept work by women authors. Leonard’s solution is to write another book – Meet Me in St Alban’s - under the pen name of Myrtle Banbury. A good idea until publisher Harriet Copeland attempts to contact ‘her’ to say that the book has won a prize and will be published.

What follows is a very funny play with an intelligent plot, many good one-line gags and, in spite of the fanciful story, believable dialogue.

Leading man Mark Lewin was just right as the unassuming Leonard Loftus, who is at the centre of the mayhem he has created. Confident and very busy throughout the show, Mark is to be commended for the way he carried off this role, not least because in Act 2 he has to drag up to represent his alter ego, Myrtle. An actor playing a role is one thing, playing a role on top of that is another! Well done.

Leonard’s family also entertained. The part of Gus Loftus, Leonard’s delinquent father, under the constant threat of being sent back to the old folks’ home from which he is taking an enforced sojourn, was played with gusto by Dave Toman. Dave has a very good sense of comedy and clearly savoured delivering some great, outrageous lines – ‘it couldn’t have been gross indecency, it was too cold to be gross’. And newcomer Abigail Jeffs was excellent as Leonard’s likeable but (with grandad’s help) scheming daughter, who nonetheless really does love her dad. Abigail looks like a ‘natural’ who will be a great asset to the society.

Sue Arthurs, returning to Brackley Players after a break, impressed as the female lead, publisher Harriet Copeland, a businesswoman and feminist, who, in spite of all the nonsense she had been subjected to through Leonard’s innocent chicanery is happy to forgive him. And Willie Briggs, a bystander and commentator on the shenanigans outside Leonard’s flat at the play’s denoument, was played with aplomb by Mark Barclay.

An essential ingredient of a comedy like this is a confident, sharp and pacy delivery. On this, the first night, this was certainly true of the first act, which I enjoyed very much, but the second act lost some of  this crispness, which was a shame. I hope that the cast will gain in confidence in their subsequent shows as their hard work and undoubted skill deserves a rather better result than this.

Special mention should be made of the set which was a tour de force, using the wide stage to great advantage to give us a fine impression of Leonard’s living room, Dee Dee’s bedroom and Harriet’s office, with a very clever use of some steps up from the auditorium to take actors to Leonard’s front door.

All in all, a good evening’s entertainment, with thanks to director Keith Fraser and front of house staff Brackley Players for their friendly  hospitality.

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