Waiting for God

Although this play was new to me, I remember enjoying watching the TV series of the same name back in the 1990’s. Since that time, it has been adapted for the stage and brought into the era of the silver surfer.  The characters though, as far as I can remember, remain the same and, most importantly, it is just as hilarious.

The Director had put together a strong cast headed up by Judy Curry as the feisty Diana Trent, a retired photojournalist, now living in a retirement home due to reduced circumstances. A terrific performance with great comedic timing by this very experienced actor whom I have had the pleasure of seeing on stage on several occasions.

Bringing out Diana’s softer side is new resident Tom Ballard, who tells Diana that it suits his family for him to reside there. An excellent almost laid-back performance by Peter Simmons.  His rather dull son Geoffrey is well played by Liam Sheils.

Managing the care home is Harvey Baines or as Diana refers to him “the idiot Baines”.  This rather nervous, agitated character was very well played by Adam Thompson.  His cry of “you’re touching me Jane” whenever his infatuated assistant gets too close caused a lot of laughs. A good performance by Cheryl Ferris as Jane Edwards who goes to great lengths to attract Harvey’s attention.

Jane Presland was Diana’s pregnant niece Sarah Chase. With her husband in prison, she relies on Diana to be with her for the birth, an event which brings about some surprising reactions.

The main characters were well supported by Gillian Williamson, Steve Patient, John Jones and Marcia Baldry-Bryan taking on several smaller, but none the less significant roles.

The play has numerous scene changes and with such a small stage there really was no option but to completely change the set each time.  This was carried out as swiftly as possible and I was particularly impressed by how quickly the substantial fold up bed was put up and taken down again after each use, there being no room backstage to store a made-up bed!

With two weddings and a funeral thrown into the mix this was indeed a very funny play.

Direction was good as were sound and lighting.  There were also some very realistic sound effects.

I thoroughly enjoyed this production and judging by their reactions, so did the audience.

Thank you for inviting me and I very much look forward to seeing The Greville Theatre Company’s next production.

 

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