Party Piece

This fast-paced comedy depicts the strained relations between feuding neighbours and families. Michael, an uptight doctor, and his wife Roma decide to hold a barbecue to show off their renovated house to their friends. In the garden, Michael and Roma are making preparations for a barbecue, expecting a house full of guests to join them. Next door lives Mrs Hinson, an elderly woman. Mrs Hinson’s son, David, is trying to persuade his mother to move into more appropriate accommodation. The evening looks set to be a lively one until a string of hilarious disasters strike and things descend into disaster and chaos.

Michael and Roma’s carefully organised plans start to go awry. The barbecue fuel is damp, they forgot to take the meat out of the freezer and they start getting phone calls from their ‘friends’. This is a delightful play written by Richard Harris in 1992. It is funny and fast-paced, very cleverly written and very relevant. 

With any play getting the correct cast is important and Chris Cooper did a great job with this.  Taking the roles of Michael and Roma were Steve Hayes and Lydia Sanders.  Very funny and worked well together.  When Steve dressed up as Debbie McGee the audience fell about laughing.  Chris Cooper took on the role of David and George Morris the role of his wife Jennifer.  Again another good pairing.  The two guests who actually turned up for the house warming were Toby and Man eating Sandy, played by Alex Fraser and Nicki Parry.  The outstanding member of the cast, for me was Rachel Pinwell as Mrs. Hinson. A great comedy part played so well by Rachel

The set for this production was very effective.  It was spilt into the two gardens and the attention to detail was very good. 

This was a great nights entertainment and one that should not have been missed.

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