The Monkey's Paw and Strictly Sex Factor on Ice

It was a pleasure to join Twyford Drama again, this time for a double bill of one act plays. The two plays were brilliantly contrasting, one a spine-tingling chiller adapted by Jonathan Holloway from WW Jacobs’ book, the other an hilarious return to Little Grimley written by the master of farce, David Tristram.

The Monkey’s Paw is a haunting tale of the supernatural, a dark tale of magic and power and horrific consequences which a followed a macabre theme with plenty of twists and turns, keeping the audience wondering what was going to happen next. The cast developed depth and interesting contrasts to their characterisations and the supernatural feel of the play was palpable as initial fascination with the stories of the monkey’s paw’s magical developed into horror and dark magic.

For the second play, we were transported to Little Grimley where following a crushing review of their last production, and convinced that poor audience numbers were due to Saturday night television, Chairman Gordon had devised another cunning plan. The idea was to compete head-on with their very own live Saturday night blockbuster, combining the best of them all!? This play had also been well cast and Charlie had obviously worked with the four actors to deliver their characters in a suitably tongue in cheek manner so that they were stereotypes without being over the top. The slapstick elements of the final scene with Joyce on roller skates and the ensuing chaos was well controlled, and there were some lovely comedy moments.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.