THREE ONE-ACT PLAYS

It was lovely to see a collection of three one-act plays, all of them comedies, but all completely different, there was something for everyone. And what a wonderful way to kick-off Hardingstone Players Golden Anniversary year!

The first play was Rambles on Radio, written by Robert Scott and was directed by Alison Roberts. The set was simple, but effective, looking like a radio recording studio, with the microphone stands and a small table where the sound effects lady sat. The action began with the cast rehearsing the play, things quickly descended into mayhem … actors missing their lines, or going off set and others having to improvise and make up voices to cover them. When Christopher told Charlie the sound effects lady that she must put on the thick rimmed glasses, things went from bad to worse as she couldn’t read the script; it was hysterical! The six actors were all excellent and worked well together. Ken Roberts played Christopher, Charlotte Hodge played Georgina, Charlie the sound effects lady was played by Gemma Young, Martin was played by Richard Graham, Martin’s wife, Louise was played by Esther Poulus and Harry was played by Graham Lee. Great performances from them all, but I must say that I thought Ken Roberts was outstanding. Special mention must go to Alison Roberts for her excellent direction.

The second play was Money, Money, Money, written by Ian Ashcroft and was directed by Ken Roberts. This play again had a simple but very effective set. The story was set in a Women’s Institute meeting where they were looking for suggestions on how to raise funds more effectively; it was agreed to use the cleaner’s idea and set up a call centre where all of the women would give paid advice on a variety of problems. The six actors were Rhiannon George as Hermione Richardson-Hulme, Hilary Hodge as ‘Poppy’ Meadows, Alison Roberts as Angela James, Rachel Dobbs as Sharon Price, Joy Burnett as Martha Hall and Chris Hobson as Mrs Grant. It would not be fair of me to single out any performance as they were all equally talented and worked very well together.  Ken Roberts did a brilliant job with the direction too. So, well done to you all on what was a very, very funny play, I did not stop laughing all the way through it, and I think this was my favourite of the trio of plays. The author of this play was local man, Ian Ashcroft, who in lieu of royalties asked that donation be given to The Samaritans in Bedford.

The final play was At The Gates of Valhalla, it was written by TLC Creative and was directed by Simon Wolfenden. Four Vikings have died in battle and are hoping to enter ‘The Eternal Feast’; only one Viking, Wulf, makes it to The Gates of Valhalla the others end up in Value Valhalla. Again we saw five amazing performances with great characterisations from them all. Richard Graham played Erik, Val the receptionist was played by Gemma Young, Sean Holditch was Olaf, Joel Dobbs played Ragnar and Wulf was played by Graham Lee. The set was again simple but effective. This was the most unusual of the trio of plays, again it was very funny. I think this was probably a difficult one to direct, however, Simon Wolfenden has done a splendid job with it.

The costumes for all three plays were very good and were appropriate for the settings. The props were all excellent and well utilised. The lighting and sound quality was perfect throughout all the performances. Congratulations to all at Hardingstone Players for this highly entertaining and very enjoyable production. Well done!

© NODA CIO.  All rights reserved 

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.