The Last Bread Pudding

This clever comedy revolves around the committee of an amateur drama group, meeting to discuss a new play written by one of its members for a drama festival entry.  Strangely, or maybe not so strangely, the ideas and comments presented seem to be reflecting the lives of the committee members. Not without a touch of surrealism, tongue-in-cheek (and occasionally adult) dialogue and irreverence towards what makes a good play, 'The Last Bread Pudding', is great fun.

The staging was minimal but had all it needed which was a committee table and the requisite number of chairs.  Excellent prop work for Jack’s weird and wonderful whatever, we never did exactly find out what it was supposed to be.  Lighting design did all it needed to and the sound effects were fine.  I very much liked the costuming which entirely suited each character.

To achieve success with this play it needs good cue bite and characterisation.  This cast had it in spades.  Jonathan Bolderson as the opinionated Ken Mills, abhorrer of bad language and Chair of this disparate group, was in top form, a performance which was matched by Carol Gentry as Denise. One who revelled in being as coarse tongued as possible adding fuel to Ken’s disgust.  A very funny moment was when Ken and Denise had a ‘face off’ where Director Alan Marston used Bolderson’s height to throw one more funny moment into an almost full pot of funny moments in this play.  Donna Bright lived up to her name as Fleur Florian the ‘spiritual’ one whose ideas for re-writing poor Jan’s play got wilder as things went along. A super performance which peaked with her emergence from beneath the table after inadvertently getting caught between a father/daughter hug . Katie Lewis did a fine job as new playwright Jan.  it was great to see the different reactions as she defended her play against some of the outlandish ideas being presented. I really enjoyed Dominic Bright’s splendid performance as Jack Handy, scenery and props maker extraordinaire. His tale of losing his baby daughter was beautifully done.  A contender for the 2019 Cameo Award must be Maureen Hutter who played Phyllis Little the group’s secretary.  This was a perfect non-verbal performance.  Getting the short straw in all the mayhem was Ann Sherwood as a very smelly and scruffy Tramp who ultimately found love.  Despite everyones differences all their stories ended well and they all waltzed off into the sunset except Phyllis who remained with her torch finalising the minutes.

I have seen this one act play several times at various drama festivals and it is often a winner.  I think this one would be too.  It was extremely well done by a Director and cast who knew how to wring every ounce of humour from a script.  

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