The Actress

There is good width to the Wymondham Central Hall stage, and, at curtain opening, this had been fully utilised to produce a superbly designed set, with great attention to detail, as the play opens in the dressing room of a famous actress, Lydia Martin, who is about to embark on her final performance in front of her adoring audience, before she retires to Switzerland to marry her older partner.

With a sofa centre stage, the set was beautifully and colourfully dressed with many bouquets of flowers, a dressing table, clothes runner rail, privacy screen, and various small pieces of incidental furniture to hold drinks etc. I was interested to see how the set would to change to the scenes where the final performance of Lydia Martin takes place (as Lubov in Anton Chechov’s “The Cherry Orchard”), and was very impressed as some sliding doors in the rear flats had been very cleverly installed to open for the scenes to effortlessly transform from the dressing room and reveal the play in progress. Lighting cues, sound effects, and the quality of diction was top class throughout.

Opening the play as the patient, calm and loyal dresser of Lydia Martin, Katherine, Amanda Oelrichs’ performance was wonderful. She added warmth and subtle humour to her character throughout, the warm relationship with Lydia, the highly strung actress that she had faithfully served for many years was very convincing and touching. There were many highlights in the play, but the one that I enjoyed most, was the poignant moment when Katherine prepared and assisted dressing Lydia to go on stage for her final performance, to the sound of Elgar’s “Nimrod.” A wonderful piece of direction by Tabi Paternoster, which was delivered to perfection by Amanda, as Katherine, and Heather Carpenter as Lydia.

Heather Carpenter was outstanding as Lydia and was on stage pretty much throughout as she delivered a vast amount of script, one section whilst in “The Cherry Orchard” I estimated at around 5 minutes of solo dialogue. Her interactions with the other characters were very entertaining, the performance was a joy to observe. In particular, the scene with her ex-husband Paul, (played by Chris Cate), who turns up in the dressing room and attempts to seduce her. Chris Cate was very funny as he mocked the elder new Partner and husband to be Charles (David Paternoster). I understand David came into this role very late, but I would never have known as his performance and characterisation was spot on.

There were further very strong performances from Colleen Giacomelli as Harriet, the agent of Lydia, culminating in her letting go of her pent-up emotions over the years at having to tolerate Lydia and her outbursts. Poor Margaret, the company manager, (played by Samantha Coultas) was the subject of Lydia’s ire as she tried to pass down notes from the director, only to be completely ignored. I think this was Tegan Tangwystl Jones’ first outing with the Players as Nicole, the daughter of Lydia, and this was another particularly good performance.

Chris Baines and Alan Carpenter supported as the roles of the actors in “The Cherry Orchard.”

My congratulations and thanks to Tabi Paternoster and all at Wymondham Players for a very enjoyable evening.

 

 

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