Round and Round the Garden

We, the audience entered the hall at Polegate and were immediately transported into the garden of a Victorian vicarage house in summertime and the birds were singing!  This was a really excellent set which gave plenty of room for the action about to take place and the talented cast took every opportunity to use the space to bring this, part of Alan Ayckbourne’s trilogy The Norman Conquests, to life.

Round and Round the Garden is really the tale of a lost weekend with many entanglements taking place, some romantic and some not!  The six characters were very well cast and the first to appear was Tom, the local Vet looking for his cat who had escaped into the garden.  Glenn Tonge gave Tom all the indecisiveness that the character called for, particularly in his relationship with Annie (Jane Parratt) who was the unfortunate one of the family who still lived at home to look after the family’s elderly mother and she played the part so well in every way.   Norman, Annie’s brother-in-law, arrived to whisk her away for the weekend which never happened and Ian Parratt gave an inspired performance as Norman in so many ways. The rest of Annie’s family was made up of Reg (Geoff Shorman), her brother and Sarah (Cris Haniver) his wife whose relationship had obviously never really worked, and whose performances were a delight, together with that of Alison Attwood as Ruth, Norman’s long suffering wife.

The weekend progressed with the characters going round and round the garden in ever decreasing circles of misunderstandings, much to the delight of the audience.

The Creative Team are certainly to be congratulated for all the work carried out backstage.  Jim Dobell who designed the set and the set builders (David Buck, Ron Oram and David Shanks) should be justifiably proud of the outcome of their hard work.

Many thanks to all involved, whether on stage or off and particularly to Director Jim Dobell for masterminding another success for Polegate.                                          

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