Practice To Deceive

This is a relatively new play from veteran playwright Norma Robbins and has only been performed 5 times in the 3 years it has been written.  It is an interesting plot, full of twists and turns and with layers of intrigue.  Norman Robbins is a master of misdirection and there was plenty of that in this script!

This was the first performance of this run and, I am afraid this showed with one or two members of the cast.  There were a few prompts needed which didn’t seem to be picked up too well.  This is a shame because everyone had worked on accents and characters to bring the story to life.  Having to take a prompt, inevitably slows the pace a bit and it took a while to pick up again.

Jill Snelling (Jessica Scanlon) produced a good strong performance as did Madeleine Emmerson (Mildred McBride) Trevor Povey (Adrian Brookes) and Dave Carey (Donald Caffrey).  Dave Blackwell (Gavin Purdie) Jenny Lee (Diana Wishart) and Monika Zieba (Susan) kept the pace moving along nicely.   There were, unfortunately, several occasions when some of the performers just did not project enough and we couldn’t hear their dialogue.   The acoustics in this theatre are good but actors still need to project and this was not happening for quite a lot of the dialogue, making the story a little more difficult to understand!

The scenery was excellent, a strong and effective standing set, which I have come to expect from this company and their long established scenery designer, Paul Lazell.  I would particularly commend the effects; the wet coats as the actors came in from the rain, the rise and fall of the sound as the door was opened and closed, the ‘noises off’ were all executed well and there had, clearly, been a lot of thought gone into it.

Overall a most enjoyable production, I hope that the dialogue was more certain in subsequent performances.

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