Naughty Words

Ormskirk Theatre Companies’s( OTC) latest production was a very funny comedy which was saucy without being offensive called “Naughty Words” written by Darren Edwards, which was originally premiered by OTC back in 2007.This time around the play was directed by Joe Coyne who also stepped up to play the part of Simon at the last minute due to illness. The story revolves around businessman Justin played by Simon James who is engaged to a lovely but prim and proper fiancée called Sarah  played by Lisa O’Reilly who just happens to be the daughter of the Chief Constable and a rather prudish mother. However, there is a  big problem as Justin has told Sarah that he is a solicitor  but he actually runs a successful erotic chat line company, he did train to be a solicitor, but never practiced, Everything is going well with the arrangements  for the wedding, but then out of the blue things start to spiral out of control  when Sarah decides to visit Justin’s office, In a panic Justin tries to keep up the pretence that he is a  solicitor during Sarah’s visit, with the help of his employees, four very different characters  who were not at all what you might expect to be working on an erotic chat line, here played by four talented experienced actors that included Lesley Roper as Edith, who has been in the business for a number of years, and knits while speaking to her clients on the phone, then we have the afore mentioned Joe Coyne  who was very camp as Simon, with Ann Todd as Monique who is French and spends most of her time reading magazines and making tea for everyone when not talking to clients and then there is Sharon played by Pat Baker who tells it as it is and likes to read books. Unfortunately the phones start to ring and Sarah begins to be suspicious after she accidentally answers one or two calls, will she work out what is really going on and call off the wedding. The last two members of this very experienced cast were Jackie Roscoe as Margaret,Sarah’s mother and Gary Simpson as George her father. All the actors understood their roles and produced lovely well acted comedic characterisations with excellent diction, although the pace was a little slow at the beginning of the production and there were a few prompts taken, but happily the pace got better as the performance progressed resulting in an overall very funny entertaining play, enjoyed and appreciated by the audience, the play also has a comical twist at the end.

The room was set up very nicely, the audience were sat at tables with a stage area at the front. There wasn’t  any scenery just a black curtain backdrop on the stage area but the scene was set with the use of applicable props complimented with sound and lighting by Alan Baker which worked very well and was more than suitable for the venue and the play,OTC are excellent at making the very best use of their facilities while making the setting for their productions authentic.

This was a lovely enjoyable evening of entertainment,congratulations to all involved in bringing this production to the stage. Thank you very much for inviting us.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.