One Act Plays (3)

An evening of one act plays. This was my first visit to see this group and a very interesting evening it turned out to be.

The first play,The Happiest Day of your life, set in separate hotel rooms, the bride and a bridesmaid in one room and the groom and best man in the other. Each had their chance to express their doubts about whether marriage was right for them or that they loved each enough. With a little help they were both finally convinced that it was and so they were married. Four lovely performances, Laurie( Sarah White, the bride, Eliza (Sarah Howden) bridesmaid, Isaac (groom) and Will (Dan Haresnape) best man.   

The second play Poison set in a seedy flat was a complex piece, Dennis (Jeremy Winter) arrives at the flat to inform Archie ( Mike Stockley) that he is about to die as Dennis has been slowly trying to poison his wife by putting Ceralyn in flapjacks baked by him. Archie and Dennis’s wife work together and she didn’t like the food and has been taking it to work and giving it to Archie. They work in a pharmaceutical lab and so have access to poison. Archie makes a brew and as he is about to die decides to poison his tea. Dennis gets suspicious and when Archie turns his back he switches the cups. Dennis duly collapses at the kitchen table and so gets his comeuppance. Two handers are difficult but they made it interesting. 

The third play The Mixer, set in the kitchen of Peter (Andrew Hall) and Edna (Sylvia Williams) told the story of Peter’s problems with the council and recycling his rubbish, what went in the blue, green or grey bins. Peter helped an elderly neighbour sort out what went where only for her to receive a letter from the council threatening her with baliffs as all her rubbish was in the wrong bins. Peter being the Knight Errant promptly telephones the council to complain and then the fun starts. When he gets past all the various options and finally speaks to a person, he wants to know why his bins have not been emptied for three weeks, judging by the audience reaction to this play it seems to have touched a nerve on many levels. Another two hander superbly played. Nice to see a production supported by a packed house. 

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