Spanish Lies

Spanish Lies by Frank Vickery is a cleverly constructed comedy about a married couple, Lorna and Dougie, returning to their honeymoon hotel in Majorca to celebrate their 25th Anniversary. She wants to rekindle her romance with hotel owner Miguel and he hopes to inject some spark into their dull marriage. Neither gets what they thought they wanted.  Rather than relying on flashbacks to the original holiday, Vickery cleverly brings to life the younger versions of each of the characters (except Dougie), and their dialogue with the older versions, sometimes finishing each other’s sentences, gradually reveals what actually happened on the honeymoon and how they have felt about it since. This type of time travel must have been a challenge to direct and for the actors to learn, but Kate Burrows’ confident direction and clever interweaving of the actors on stage made it all easy to understand and capitalised on the laugh out loud comedy.

The curtain opened to reveal a superb box set (designed by Roger Mitchell) which, aided by good lighting, conjured up the terrace and bar of a small Spanish hotel extremely well. Nice details like the china wall lights and table dressing all helped enhance the picture, and scene changes by stage crew were swift and efficient. Costumes for all the characters were well chosen.

Amy Gould as 1966 Lorna, gave a nicely shy performance, already bored with her marriage and not knowing whether she should dare to take up Lothario hotel owner Miguel’s offer to take her to his secret place. John Morris’s seductive performance as 1966 Miguel was spot on. You just knew he turned on the charm for each new batch of female tourists, but you could still understand his appeal. Newcomer to Highbury Players, Elena Martinez-Blanco, really shone as the 1966 Regietta, still innocent and hopeful that Miguel might be a good husband, despite witnessing his faults.

As 1991 Lorna, Laura Willis gave a good portrayal of a down-trodden woman longing to rekindle the excitement she remembered from her honeymoon, while Toni Tovery was wonderful as the 1991 Regietta, worn down by sixteen children, still working for nothing and waiting for Miguel to marry her. This character had some of the funniest lines in the show and Toni delivered them with great aplomb. Roger Mitchell was convincing as the 1991 Miguel – he might have aged, but nothing else had changed! Garry Hutchings made a good job of portraying uninspiring husband Dougie in both time-zones, and his ability to switch between them mid-conversation was quite remarkable.

As always, this reliable and well-supported company has given us a great evening’s entertainment. The enthusiastic applause at the end of the show was a great testament to how much we all enjoyed the performance and appreciated how much hard work and dedication had gone into producing it.

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