Out of Focus

Peter Gordon seems to have succeeded in making quite a niche for himself in the world of am-dram with his plays in the genres of whodunnit and comedy. 'Out of Focus' is an entertaining comedy where all the audience needs to do is sit back and enjoy the often frantic action on stage.

The action in this play takes place in the annex of a church hall where several groups turn up under the impression that the venue has been booked for their use. The mix-up has due to the incompetence of the vicar's wife who has recently taken over this responsibility. Eventually all those present agree, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, to take part in the local panto - written and directed by the vicar's wife - surely a recipe for chaos? So we follow the characters through the often hilarious rehearsals and performance, while contending with the ups and downs of their individual lives.

To succeed with comedy the actors have to maintain both pace and focus. I felt that, on the whole, these factors were well-managed. Each of those on stage had been able to get under the skin of their character and gave good performances. However there were two individual performances which stood out for me - those being of Amanda Howson as the inept, over-anxious and often hysterical, vicar's wife, Evonne, and Paul Milne as the boring, hapless Leonard, who mainly dealt happily in his own little world.

As ever, the set, lighting and costumes had been well thought through and the backstage crew were very competent. I thought the whole play was a promising directoral debut by Lynn Cowley - hopefully the first of many.

Thank you all very much for a delightfullyentertaining afternoon. Well done to all -super!

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