Par For The Course

St Vincent’s Dramatics Society play is Par for the Course by Peter Gordon set on captain’s day at the Seven Lakes Golf Club. When the curtains open a detailed set of the terrace show outside brick work with double door into the club house centre stage with the golf club’s name on a plaque. When the doors open you get a glimpse of pictures and trophies inside the club house. The terrace has two tables and two chairs at each table with cushions. Baskets of flowers are on the back wall and stage left. The brick work continues down stage left broken up by an arch leading to the car park.  Stage right we see the bottom half of a tree and entrance to the golf course. With small putting green down stage right. Later on in the play a table is brought on with various foods and drinks. Great detail as always. Stage Building and Painting Stephen Bromley. Eric Jones and Tricia Shorten. Stage Managers are Eric Jones and Karl Owen. Lighting and Sound unobtrusive as should be, was by Toni Maloney. Clothes and Make Up all looked good on the characters down to the mismatching sock, club t-shirts and the character Tiffany trying to look like an air stewardess. Wardrobe and Make-Up by Patricia Quinlan.

Tricia Shorten directs and says it is only her second play. St Vincent’s coming out of covid is no secret - they re-booted and after a welcome night, we have seen some new faces on stage and new directors. Tricia takes us on the journey of the characters you find at the golf club and how they interact, not always playing nicely. Just on a general cast note, there was the occasional line fumbling, which I hope resolved itself for the second half of the run.

‘Par for the Course’s definition is what is expected to be a normal standard of play in any given circumstance. With this play, it felt like I was watching an episode of Soap the US TV series where things just get more and more bizarre, thus the in-built irony of this play’s title. We start with Barry an enthusiastic but poor golfer played by Robert Goodier, by his own admission he has tried every sport and obviously settled on this. His character meek and mild and I got the feeling lonely too, so he puts up with people at the club. His unawareness of ladies being the key and if he ends up in a relationship it’s them doing the ‘driving.’ Barry had the hapless character down to a ‘tee.’ Margaret Parkinson as the ladies Captain Fran Jeffries had to be one step ahead and assertive if women were going to thrive at the club. She looked like you would not mess with her and the cross-purpose scene with Tiffany was well done.

Vice-Captain Nick Armitage played by Austin Mulhearn fancied himself as a biker and loved breaking all the rules including having no bike insurance, his girlfriend Tiffany Jennings played by Kellianne Collier long suffering at that and ditsy. Kellianne’s character was just right and she had no idea about many things, including cooking. This is Kellianne’s first main role on stage and hope to see more of her. A confident performance.

Simon Weaver played by Keith Hindley and Laura Weaver played by Carmela Horne was great casting. Simon the typical club secretary who does things by the rules and his favourite and annoying saying “message received and understood” - we got it was received but doubt if he understood. Keith played this part well with a one-track mind involving golf, as his life crumbles around him, his one mission is his position at the golf club. Fussy and a stickler for rules the comedy was well and truly played out. Carmela playing Laura we saw a confident woman disintegrate before our eyes, it’s hard to play a drunk and Carmela did this with ease - that is a compliment, by the way! We saw the angst and the turmoil she has in dealing with her husband. Great pairing.

St Vincent’s DS cast and crew must be delighted with this play. Thank you so much for the welcome and hospitality plus the smiling gentlemen in the carpark (!) from my guest Beverley and I.

Liz Hume-Dawson, D5 Rep

 

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