The Darling Buds of May

The Chester le Street Theatre Group chose the “perfick” month to perform this play and to give their audience a light hearted romp in the countryside. Based on the novel by H E Bates which was turned into a very successful TV series in the early 90s, the play tells of the Larkin family and a visit from the tax man to investigate Pa Larkin subsidising the farm income with various not entirely legitimate enterprises.

The family’s youngest children were well played by Team B on the evening I attended, each of them engaging in the eating, drinking and general melee of activities they were involved in with enthusiasm.

Act 1 set the scene introducing us to the main family members including two live chickens Lulu and Shimia who were particularly well behaved and to Pa’s unconventional money making schemes. A visit from a naïve young tax man Charley, played with confidence by Aidan Probee, leads to him being sucked into the Larkin’s lifestyle via a game of Crib and many cocktails and also into the clutches of their beautiful and manipulative daughter Mariette, expertly played by Rebecca Charlton. Aiden and Rebecca worked well together portraying all of the comedy in their scenes.

In act 2 of the story we were introduced to some of the Larkin’s outrageous and unusual neighbours and visitors. There was good support by all the cameo roles played by Dave Alexander (The Brigadier), Geoff Graham (the tax inspector), Adam Donald (Sir Bluff-Gore), Katherine Saunders (Lady Bluff- Gore), Viki Cowie (Pauline Jackson) and Kay Anderson (Angela Snow), each one being played confidently and with their different characters coming to the fore but I must make special mention of the memorable performance of Elizabeth Purcell as Miss Pilchester, she was hilarious, the jump onto the seat (and Pop!) was very funny.

Leading all of the fun and frolics were the characters of Ma and Pa Larkin who we find out are not actually married. Gary Saunders as Pa portrayed a man rebellious in his nature to provide for his family whilst Karen Scott portrayed a strong willed Ma Larkin and was an excellent foil for her “husband”, there was good chemistry between the two. Gary took on the lead role of Pa only three weeks before the production due to the ill health of Bill Watson and what a sterling job he did, great characterisation, accent and acting and not a prompt to be heard, well done!

The set made use of the stage and the floor area depicting the inside of the family kitchen as well as the grass and trees of the outdoors and everyone’s costumes were authentic looking. The props team for this production had their work well and truly cut out as the family and friends munched their way through various food items and many, many drinks, I’m sure the cast would have piled the pounds on.

Congratulations to all involved for providing an evening full of fun (and food!).

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