The Safari Party

This play pre-dates Firth’s later hugely successful Calendar Girls and is a dark comedy of rural versus town and a satire on values and social perceptions. It also mixes a curious group of people and it is never quite satisfactorily explained how this unusual group come to be having a ‘Safari Party’ where different courses of the same meal are enjoyed (or not) in various locations in the first place – unless I missed the explanation in the dialogue.Staging this play can provide considerable challenges for the set designer and construction team having the three acts taking place in three very different locations.The Bartholomew Players answer to this tricky problem was to ingeniously use an open undressed stage which became the different homes of the hosts of the next course of the meal by the addition of various items of furniture and props with clever lighting to complete the effect. In the directors notes he concludes that the use of stage items and the audience imagination would suffice which largely it did. The actors used the props well and I was impressed by the serving of the meal in the second act.For me, the location of act one was the most difficult to visualise whilst acts two and three had more recognisable and solid ‘props’. I liked the assorted tables assembled at crazy angles in act three depicting Inga’s chaotic outhouse antiques storeroom.The talented cast gave believable and immediately recognisable characterisations to which we can all relate.  The Players often choose unusual and challenging plays and this production was no exception. Congratulations to all involved.

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