Wife in the Fast Lane

I never cease to be amazed at the wonderful sets you construct at St. Hilda’s!  Having now been on the stage to award the Accolades, I realise just how tight the space is – a fact which isn’t at all apparent from the body of the hall.

The properties were good and the chequered flag along with the two large framed photographs of Lilly astride a couple of powerful motorbikes, reinforced her previous working life as an ex model in the motor racing industry.

Neale’s farce built up tremendously in the second act -- I made very few notes as I was laughing so much – and the cast did it justice.

At the opening, we were introduced to the ladies who after the frivolities at the party the night before all had serious hangovers. This meant that the dialogue, of necessity, was slow and rather laboured at the start and it took a little time to capture the audience’s full attention. After a few minutes the pace naturally began to quicken as the cues were picked up more promptly and then the pace never faltered.

I imagine the challenge of writing a farce is enormous – plotting so many overlapping situations and almost non-stop comedy – but Neale rises to it admirably.

There were some hilarious moments with the various characters hiding behind the bar, sofa, in and out of doors and not ‘seeing’ one another in the process. It was very slickly done.

In the role of Lilly, Sophie Gane was excellent. Her acting was so natural and her diction and timing were perfect.

Anwen was delightful as the scatty dumb blonde Suzie, and playing her love interest, Sam, Rachel Wells gave a sound performance. Hers was the more serious role to take and the contrast between the two girls’ personalities made their relationship seem highly likely. Opposites attract etc;

As the husband Rob, Craig Entwistle really made his mark in the second act. The secrecy with Suzie had the audience jumping to the intended wrong conclusion that they were having an affair - that was cleverly done.

Sarah Poore made it blatantly obvious what she wanted and clearly enjoyed the role of Chrissie. She was sexy, flirtatious and age didn’t matter either!  (Sorry Mike!)

For one so young Rob Devereux made his mark as the Pizza Guy and bravely faced the audience in his boxers on his first entrance.

In the role of the classic Italian lover Mario, Dave Palman was brilliant. His accent was convincing as were his extravagant gestures and he brought out the comedy in his role splendidly.

Another first rate performance was from Laura Ellen as Gretchen. She was the epitome of the stereotypical cleaning lady seen in comic sketches and her costume, down to the carpet slippers, completed the characterisation.

Neil took a role in his own creation and he played the part of Yew with aplomb.

Cast as the parents Barbara and Lionel, played by Sandra and Mike respectively, the love–hate relationship between them was very well pointed. He was incredibly rude to her and she was long suffering and indifferent. It was a good observation of human relationships by Neale.

The play was soundly directed by Steve Smith – no easy task to direct a farce - well done!

Your programme is nicely presented and colourful – perhaps you’d like to enter it in the Poster and Programme Competition? If so I’ll pick up four from you in December or you could post four to Kay Rowan or me.

The lighting was good and your choice of music always appeals to my taste. Sound was good too.

Congratulations to everyone involved in staging another very funny play. Keep them coming!

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