Out of Focus

“Out of Focus” by Peter Gordon is set in the annex of a church hall, where a series of over-bookings have led to a great mix of characters from the local community, descending upon the hall together, becoming aggravated with each other, but eventually they pull together for a single purpose – to stage the next church pantomime.

The culprit for the over booking appeared to be the Vicar’s wife ‘Evonne’ who was trying to rehearse the pantomime – Fearful of her Vicar husband and totally lacking in confidence and that all things will fail, the role is well played by Helen Deeming. At the same time, the over bearing ‘Helen’ (Claire Hadland) and her Brownies also believe they have booked the hall, as well as ‘Kath’ and ‘Bob’ (Caroline Caldwell and Tim Williams) who are preparing to play badminton with a visiting team headed by police-man ‘David’ played by Tom Farley. At the same time ‘Leonard’ played by Mark Cox  was expecting to give a slide show on one of a variety of totally boring subjects and consequently you have a recipe for confusion.

Christian Davies as ‘Wayne’ plays the ‘lad about town’ and he and ‘Sue’ (Jo Rush) look to join the panto fun whilst ‘Linda’, Bob’s secretary played by Claire Rutland turns up and creates a problem for his suspicious wife ‘Kath’ – all gave good support, but I felt Williams and Cox had the edge on everyone for some great delivery and timing. Act 1 concluded with a very amusing song involving  the whole cast.

The set depicting the annex to the church hall was well constructed and although we are used to scene changes being conducted in view, I wondered if some suitable music during these would have added to the overall production, well served by Laura -Jo McConnell.

I liked the way all the characters developed in Act 2, as well as the pace going up a notch which added to the drama in which ‘Helen’ decides to drop out of the panto and be replaced at short notice by ‘Evonne’, only to be persuaded by ‘David’ (who she has an eye for) to return. These scenes were well handled as well as when ‘Wayne’ seeks advice from ‘Evonne’ proving he may not be as confident as his earlier bravado implied. When ‘Evonne’ has an out of character tipple, her true feelings become clear and the scene where  ‘Bob’ and ‘Kath’ make up was also well handled, although we are disappointed that ‘Kath’s’ earlier suspicion’s regarding ‘Linda’  turn out to be well founded. Fortunately for ‘Bob’ some photos that captured ‘extra-curricular activities’ were  - out of focus!

I am sure some first night hesitations will be overcome, and in any event did not impede the audience’s enjoyment. Congratulations to all involved.

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