Volunteers

PADOS played this rare and quite unknown play to a full crowd, it cannot be denied that the set was terrific; the cosy magic box of PADOS house was unrecognisable as it had been transformed into an authentic looking charity shop.

The script is whimsical, slightly irregular and lacked any identity, on several occasions it almost felt like a salute to ‘Acorn Antiques’ but most surprising of all - as a focal and substantial plot began to emerge, a fantasy musical number gets flung in which completely threw me off course.
The script had (perhaps unknowingly) confused some of the players too as it became evident to me that different cast members had approached the text with different ideas. Looking at the set, you’d expect this to be a naturalistic piece as both Elizabeth Flay (Brenda) and Cassie Jaye Healey (Leanne) reflected their naturalistic surrounds and gave us believable and true-to-life interpretations - whereas the majority performed fanciful, larger than life and overstated characters which, as an audience member, I found a little difficult to pinpoint what style or genre this production was supposed to be.

Sandra O’Nions was wonderful as Prue, the flavour of Mrs Overall was splendid and certainly injected energy and a much needed kick into the piece. 
Claire, played by Helen Marland, gave quite a stereotypical caricature which worked nicely as she delivered the patronising area manager who gets smitten by the CEO.
Sue Pinder certainly brought several of the biggest laughs with her performance as Denny, my particular highlight of Sue’s was her constant chatter with a mouth full of biscuits.

Whenever Simon Fletcher was on stage, he certainly did everything in his power to make sure all eyes were on him, no director would ever need to worry about energy levels from Simon though I did sense a bit of a loose cannon about him as he was very farce like which seemed to grow larger and larger with each laugh he got.

Several cameo roles (all customers) were shared amongst 5 players who were all very specific stereotypes though; again, some were portrayed very true to life while others could have been villagers in a pantomime sketch.

It’s always risky for a society to produce a play which hasn’t been published by an accredited publisher as the reasons why it hasn’t will most likely be made clear to the audience. But, it’s commendable and refreshing to see a group exploring different avenues to find new material rather than just sticking to the French’s catalogue!

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.