Some of my Best Friends are Women

It always nice as an irregular visitor to be recognised, in the foyer before the show
started, I was welcomed by cast member Chris Baines, and a little later by Chairman
David Percival we were also kindly provided with refreshments, very welcome after a
forty-mile drive.

The hall is a reasonably large venue and was quite well filled with a receptive audience,
including the author’s husband who had travelled down from Scotland. We were
presented with a well built and dressed box set representing Lynn’s Sitting Room. Lynn
is hosting a meeting of the local book club, members of which know each other well, or
do they?

The play opened with Lynn, well played by Tracey Hobbs, just doing some business
around the selection of drinks and refreshments for the evening, no dialogue, just comic
actions and timing, well done. As Lynn left Dorothy came in, equally well played by Tabi
Paternoster again doing some business, reversing some of Lynn’s actions. It’s not easy
working on an empty stage with just actions, looks and movement to hold the audience’s
attention. These two actresses were well matched and had some great lines and actions,
bringing out not only the humour but the bossiness of Dorothy and the acquiescence of
Lynn to her actions in order to keep the book club active. These two actresses clearly
showed the characteristics of the two women. I liked the way that all five actresses had
clearly developed their characters and brought them to life on stage. it was interesting
the way the lady’s tongues were loosened the more that they appeared to drink.
Amanda, played by Katy Lowry clearly liked to wind up the rather staid Dorothy and she
did this with some style. The very nature of the story line did not allow for a lot of
movement, being set quite static, on a sofa and armchairs around a coffee table, Katy
made the most of this varying her seating style on the sofa. Any movement around set
was intentional and followed the story line, with exits to the kitchen, into the hallway,
clearly shown by a ‘half wall’, up the stairs or out of the front door. Becky Davis gave a
good rendition of a rather snooty solicitor who had convinced herself she was pregnant;
she gave us many laughs as she eased herself on to the sofa or ran upstairs to be sick.
She was very well paired with Melissa Clarke as Helen, a receptionist at the same
solicitor’s office who gave as good as she got, great banter between the two of them.
Tabi worked very well bringing Dorothy’s drunkenness to the stage, rather well played.
We had a rather nicely performed cameo by Chris Baines as Steve, Amanda’s friend who
was delegated to find the missing rather tipsy Dorothy and becomes the catalyst for further ill will between Jill and Helen.

Chris Cate gave a good performance as Chris who was called upon to take Dorothy home and was mistaken for Lynn’s errant husband, he had some great comic moments. The mis-apprehensions and confusions that werer evealed about what the friends knew about each over were well shown and developed throughout the play.

The cast were greatly helped by a well designed and built box set, nicely furnished and
some great props which also helped the humour, the washing hanging out to dry and the
underwear being discretely hidden, the wine bottle unable to be opened, the wine that
Amanda hides from Dorothy. Costumes matched the different characters and were
thought through, Diction was very good, I liked the accent that Amanda was given and
again the voices matched the different characters, the play moved with pace apart from
the opening. This was an amusing play and was well performed and produced. Well done
to cast, director and to the set design / builders.

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