Two One Act Plays

What a delightful afternoon we had … we were at Hardingstone Village Hall to see Hardingstone Players latest production called “Two One Act Plays”. Although the two plays are both comedies, they were in sharp contrast to one another. The first play “After Esme” was written by Kathryn West and had been carefully constructed with well - defined characters. The plot tells of three friends whose fourth friend had died, the three women get together regularly in various restaurants and coffee shops to talk about their deceased friend, their hilariously funny antics are regularly seeing them asked to leave the premises. Ken Roberts has done an excellent job with the direction, it had a good pace and scene changes were smoothly transitioned; the play had been rehearsed well, there were moments of high comedy but also moments of great sensitivity. The actresses in the play demonstrated some fine acting skills with great comic - timing and perfect interaction with each other. The three friends were played by Rachel Dobbs as Pauline, Chris Hobson as Jenny (a performance which I particularly enjoyed) and Rachel Southgate as Alice. The role of their deceased friend Esme was very well played by Alison Roberts. Great support came from Charlotte Hodge as Waitress 1, Lisa Butler as Waitress 2, Rhiannon George as Manager 1 and 2 and Hilary Hodge as lady. Well done to all the cast and the director! The set and props for “After Esme” were very good and of a high standard. The lighting and sound quality was very good throughout.

The second play was called “The Next Big Thing” this was written by David Titchener and was another cleverly constructed play. Director, Esther Poulus did a great job with this side splitting comedy it had a great pace and well – defined characters. The storyline depicted three small time criminals who were always on the lookout for easy ways to make money and they hit on the idea of substituting a parrot for a pigeon in order to enter a big prize money pigeon race. The four actors all gave great performances and all had very good timing. Gary Butler gave perfect characterisation to his role of Eddie, Joel Dobbs was excellent in the role of Jono, Rhiannon George was very good in the role of Big Chris’s girlfriend, Maureen. The performance that stood out for me was the role of Big Chris that was outstandingly played by Simon Wolfenden, his comic timing was impeccable and this has to be one of the finest comic performances that I have seen by an amateur actor. Well done to all the actors and to the director. The set was simple, but effective. The props were all excellent and well made. The lighting and sound quality throughout was very good.

Congratulations to all at Hardingstone Players for these two well - chosen and very well performed plays. The productions were both highly entertaining. Thank you for a wonderful afternoon.

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