See How They Run

There was a well deserved round of applause when the curtain went up on the drawing room of The Vicarage of Merton-cum-Middlewick - an ideal setting for the fun and games to come.  Farce has to have speed, clarity and excellent timing and Hailsham Players provided all of this in good measure.  The whole piece was very “Whitehallesque” to coin a phrase and everything went with a swing.

The Rev. Lionel Toop and his wife were wonderfully mismatched and played to great effect by Christopher Peck and Georgia Jones.  Then add Ida (Alison Avann) a delightfully down to earth Maid and Miss Skillon, the village prude with definite views on propriety and who has never touched alcohol!! and you have all you need to get this riotous farce off the ground.  Miss Skillon had come to the vicarage to complain about Mrs Toop having decorated the pulpit for the Harvest Festival as it had always been her own special contribution to the Harvest.  Much fun ensued when the teetotal Miss Skillon took to sherry in a big way after the shock of seeing who she took to be the vicar having fun with his wife on the drawing room floor.  Great use throughout was made of the cupboard where Miss Skillon was put to sleep it off, often with a clerical companion.

 Lance Corporal Winton (Ian Ward), a friend of Mrs Toop when they were in the acting profession, had arrived on the scene and as the Vicar was away on charitable business, they decide they would have a night out to see a play in which they had once appeared together.  However, Winton needed to change his battledress for something else to prevent him being discovered away from camp so is provided with one of the vicar’s suits, dog collar and all. 

Excellent performances as well from the German intruder – a lovely cameo role (Mike Cotton) with Mark Robinson-Sivyer giving a delightful and rather bewildered Bishop of Lax and another clerical gentlemen, The Reverend Arthur Humphrey (Clive Hale) appeared on the scene to add to the confusion. Together with Rev. Toop, these characters plus the intruder chased each other at great speed from the garden, through the house and back again quite a few times.  This was described at some point by Mrs Toop (I think) as the Harvest Games!  Exhausting to watch and very funny indeed.

Douglas Morgan as the imposing Sergeant Towers appeared at the very end of the piece.  He carried out a wonderfully farcical interrogation to discover who was who from the assorted clerics.

It was all great fun for the audience and I hope for the cast as well, although they must have been suffering from exhaustion after two performances on the Saturday of the run.  This was such a good choice of play for the Hailsham Festival, a piece which has certainly stood the test of time.

Congratulations to Director Diane Harris and all involved in any way for bringing this gloriously funny farce to an appreciative audience

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