Par for the Course

Too Friendly Theatre Company’s latest play was the Comedy “Par for the Course” written by the very talented Peter Gordon, who it is said writes about everyday life, sometimes in a funny way and sometimes in a sad way, but either way it is usually very entertaining. The play was first performed at The Alan Ayckbourn Theatre York in 2010, and the action takes place next to the putting green on the Patio outside the Clubhouse of the Seven Lakes Golf Club.Here we meet enthusiastic but hopeless Barry practicing his putting on Captains Day at the club but unfortunately the day gets off to a terrible start when the Captain rings in sick, so uptight Club Secretary Simon who lives by the rules with an ever present notebook in his pocket tries to take over the arrangements. But his plans came to nothing when the Vice-Captain the swaggering womaniser Nick and his girlfriend Tiffany arrive on the scene and take over the arrangements. Simon is very unhappy about this as he does not really think Nick is a suitable person to be a member of the club and feels he will not make a success of organising the day, this all results in a number of disasters. But then Barry along with the Lady Captain Fran, who has her own agenda fighting for women's rights in the club, add to the confusion, then to top it all,Simon’s wife Laura arrives and things go from bad to worse. The issues which come to light include marital problems, food poisoning, gender mixup, removal of a large bush, a recked car and a confession made while drunk, by the end of the play the characters understand that their relationships off the course could be more of a problem than on it.’

There are very talented actors in this company and there were six of them on show in this production who all gave us some wonderful different characters in their roles, they included Rob Darby as Barry, Mark Haygarth as Simon, Neil Woods as Nick,Sue Fryer as the Lady Captain Fran, Helen Haygarth as Laura and Chloe Ackers as Tiffany. The pace of the play was just right, diction, projection and clarity of words was excellent meaning the action could be followed easily by the audience and the cast also worked very well together as a team with spot-on comic timing, producing some good all round acting as they brought these wonderful characters to life.To have versatile actors is very important in this type of play as the script not only includes lots of very funny situations but also some poignant moments as well.

There was one excellent set which was well-dressed with applicable props and together with good lighting and costumes that fitted the context of the play and the different personalities added to the success of this production. Well done to all backstage crew.

Congratulations to Director Cliff Gillies and to all involved in bringing this excellent very enjoyable comedic production to the stage, we had a great evening and we look forward to seeing you again soon.

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