On Air

Being invited to take part in an experiment is always a very interesting experience and an opportunity I was given by Mendip Players on September 9th 2017.  Visions of Frankenstein, electrodes and giant test tubes bubbling with multi-coloured liquids were soon replaced with the reality that this was a much more down to earth experiment.

To help fill the gap between their successful production of Gut Girls and their forthcoming pantomime Alice in Wonderland, Mendip decided to put on two radio plays under the title of “On Air”.  Quite a brave decision as, effectively, the audience are paying to watch the actors read from a script, basically a glorified rehearsal.  The real question is would it work as a night of entertainment?

The auditorium was laid out in a very similar way to ‘Gut Girls’, with several tables around the room, which gave a nice intimate feel to the show.  It was also nice to see that the auditorium looked full, I know that Mendip were unsure how their audience would react to this new idea.  The night was split into two radio plays the first was ‘The Case of the Careless Victim’ a lovely little Poirot adventure, involving a dead body in a hotel room.  It was also a nice touch that the cast for this act were all dressed in suits and elegant dresses as this helped give an old school feeling to the performance. 

The play involved Poirot, whilst looking for a place to stay, finding a dead body in the hotel room of Miss Abigail Fletcher who was played excellently well by Allie White.  The play was an enjoyable little whodunit and the part of Poirot was played exceptionally well by Dan Ward whose manner and accent were impeccable throughout, as was his hat. The other parts in the production were all played well, by Tricia Lumley, Barbara Wheal, Roger Reeson and Keith Batten with a suitably posh accent. 

We were then treated to a 30-minute interval where we were given a lovely ploughman’s supper and then were proffered copious amounts of extra cheese for the remaining time in the interval. 

After the break the second part of the night’s entertainment consisted of the play ‘Welcome to our Village: Please Invade Carefully’, a very funny story about a small villages’ attempt to deal with an alien invasion.  Although the play was quite funny throughout it was the hilarious opening scene, showing the villages’ first council meeting since the aliens’ arrival, that really sticks in the mind.  Keith Batten again stood out with another interesting accent, this time in the role of Uljabaan the alien supreme leader.  Also on top form in this skit was Karen Salt, who was excellent in Gut Girls, playing the part of Katrina Lyons, the only person who seems to want to stand against the alien hoard.  Also starring in this play were the competent Sylvie Barham, Michele Ball and Gillian Salt.  Finally giving beautifully adept comic turns in the play were Nataliya Wills, as Lucy, and Ash Jones as the enterprising Chris and mono syllabic Ron.

Although there were some real stand out performances the true star of the evening had to be the sound effects, which were expertly handled by Amanda Batten, Fliss Cobley, Rob Elliot, and Jean Reeson.  It was fascinating to see the ways in which they produced the different sound effects and seeing them on show at the side of the stage, in very much the same way that they would be at a proper radio show, was a lovely touch and really gave the show an extra dimension. My only comment on this would be, that if you were to repeat this type of performance again I would consider raising the height of the sound desk to allow more people to see, as although my view was unrestricted several people around me, including people on my table, struggled to see what was going on.  I think everyone was intrigued to see the weird and wonderful way the sounds were created – I have never seen potatoes used that way before!

Overall this was a really enjoyable evening and quite an easy review to write, with no make-up, costumes, scenery or lighting to comment on there is less words for me but more pressure on the actors as they have nothing to hide behind, and I think that everyone really stepped up to the challenge well.

I think the choice of plays was good and they were about the right length as towards the end of each one, with no action to watch, some audience members were starting to get a little twitchy.  I think therefore the experiment worked really well and I for one would be more than happy to come back and see more shows of this nature.  Perhaps, although this is only my opinion, looking at your average audience member it may be nice to do some classic BBC comedy such as Hancock’s Half Hour or the Goon Show.

Thank you very much for another enjoyable evening at the Memorial Hall, as an extra note I just wanted to say what a great idea it was to have a drink unique to the show, I particularly enjoyed my moustache cocktail and it really helped round off a lovely evening.

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