Steel Magnolias

As the lights came up we were immediately transported into the joys of the gossipy world of a ladies hair salon!
The sound basic set had been dressed by the ladies of the cast to represent an extremely authentic and realistic hairdresser’s workspace. Well done ladies! This space was suitably used by the competent apprentice ‘Annelle Dupuy’, played by Tilly Blakely, who kept up the character throughout the show as she busily fulfilled all her tasks most convincingly. The other ladies all performed their respective roles very effectively to portray each of their characters. Louise Wood as Truvy Jones, Denise Clark as M’lynn Eatenton, Laura Catterall as Shelby Eatenton/Latcherie, Susan Potts as Clairee Belcher and Maureen Gillie as Ouisa Bordreaux.

The six ladies of the cast produced creditable performances and they are to be commended for keeping up a steady pace of animated chatter throughout the show in the monumental task of remembering their huge amounts of dialogue. My congratulations go to them for being word-perfect. In particular Maureen Gillie brought her character into life in her own imitable style.  She always gives us a delightful performance and was not lacking on this occasion. However knowing extremely well the quiet persona of Denise Clark, she really stole the show with her dramatic emotional outburst in the closing scene. This was extremely convincing and left us all shocked. Very thought provoking. Well done Denise!

The set, the lighting and the projected video scenes and music, all enhanced a very spirited show and made it a most enjoyable evening. Congratulations to all involved both backstage on stage for a successful production, which was very obviously the result of hard work and dedication to the fun pastime of amateur dramatics.

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