There Goes The Bride

Murton Theatre Group presented their annual play “There Goes the Bride” written by Ray Cooney and John Chapman, I had not seen this play before and was very pleased I got the chance to see this comedy farce. The ingredients of any good successful farce is all about perfect timing and actors who can deliver their lines with accuracy and the cast from Murton Theatre Group certainly had both of these ingredients with director Gordon Richardson ensuring that the cast delivered creditable performances to a very pleasing audience 

It all starts on the day of Judy Westerby’s wedding and like any credible farce events are not going very smoothly, the wedding dress needs emergency repair, granddad is having trouble finding his socks, grandma is having difficulty with her corset, the father of the bride is more interested in finding a new campaign for a bra agency and the new in laws flying in from Australia have not been booked into their hotel with the future groom forgetting to order the flowers, it couldn’t get any worse or could it. Martyn Banks who played Timothy Westerby the father of the bride whose character is an integral part of this play delivered his role with great energy and enthusiasm he had good comic timing and his antics were at times hilarious to the point that he even throw himself out of the window, excellent performance as ever from Martyn. Following an unfortunate bump on his head we meet Polly Perkins a 1920’s “flapper” the only problem is that only Timothy can see her. Polly played by Amy Westwick Holden gave a bubbly performance this was a very difficult role to deliver due to the fact no one apart form Timothy was able to see her. The bride’s mother Ursula was strongly played by Helen Abraham, Helen is a very strong character actress with great versatility. The bride Judy was played by Elizabeth Baker, for such a young lady Elizabeth gave a solid performance and was delightful in the role of the daughter about to be married. The brides grandmother Daphne Drimmond played by Anne Malpass came over extremely well in this rather Mrs Bouquet character Anne has excellent comic timing and is great to watch as she commands the stage whatever role she plays. Her husband Dr Drimmond played by Brian Hardy for me was one of the best characters in the play I loved his comic timing and the laid back way he played  this forgetful retired physician superbly. There were so many comic moments for this character but I particularly enjoyed the times when he was mimicking his son in law this was visually very funny well done Brian. Family Friend and business partner Bill Shorter was played by Martin O’Leary again excellent acting and facial expressions as he became more embroiled in the plot his many one liners were impeccable and worked well with the rest of the cast. Completing the line-up was Steve White who played Charles Babcock the father of the groom, good Australian accent and was certainly bemused by the going’s on well played in this your first performance with Murton Theatre Group.

The set looked great and withstood the multiple entrances and exits as was the costumes and props which all added to the thoroughly enjoyable evening. Well done to all for a very well received performance.

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