Two one-act plays

The Last Bread Pudding - Nick Warburton The committee of an amateur dramatic group are meeting to discuss a new play written by one of its members. The presentation of the meeting reflects the ideas put forward by the committee, making the play a demonstration as well as a discussion of those ideas. Very tongue in cheek, styilzed and over the top. Last Tango in Little Grimley - David Tristram Little Grimley Amateur Dramatic Society is in trouble. The membership has dwindled to 4 and the audiences are not much bigger. They need rent money soon or they will be thrown out of their premises. There's only one thing that sells tickets these days argues the chairman. Thus begins the chaotic and hilarious build up to an evening of extraordinary home grown drama that won't be forgotten in a hurry. NB: These plays contain adult humour.

Review:

These were a new addition to the  year and proof that you can put on a successful, entertaining show with it revolving around  acting rather than spectacle. The two  plays both  dealt with the experience of being part of an amateur dramatics society in a comedic way and I can safely say, I laughed until my jaw ached. The  Last Bread Pudding (by Nick Warburton) was a  riot of local theatre archetypes poking fun at themselves—I’ve been in production meetings  close enough to the  scene presented for  it to be hilarious! The humour was delivered brilliantly with excellent performances and comic timing from everyone involved. I particularly enjoyed Catriona Eagle’s bolshy northerner - hopefully we’ll be seeing her in more principal roles - and Alan Hooley’s hard put upon stage manager. Everyone hit the spot dead on, from Sharon Edmonds nervous  writer, Chris Spray’s pompous chairman, Elly Milln’s  ‘artiste’, Mary Hayter’s surreal tramp and last but not least Mel Mahoney as the silent and thwarted notetaker.  I very much enjoyed the self –reflective tongue in cheek humour as did the rest of the audience.

Last Tango in Little Grimley (by David Tristram) addressed that lingering spectre that haunts many amateur societies of “bums on seats” or lack of them! Facing closure the remaining stalwarts decide to sex up their show for one last attempt to save the company.  The content was highly amusing and what was very cleverly done was the “bad acting”, where it switched from the characters in normal conversation to attempting to act in their rehearsal. It is very difficult to carry that off and actually requires a lot of skill to keep the comedy. Watching Mark Wall apparently completely resistant to the idea of saying a saucy line had another layer of comedic irony as well! He was spot on as the stage manager inveigled onto the stage—the bit with the lights in the dress rehearsal particularly made me laugh! Richard Wright was the picture of frustrated director (and had me wondering maybe he feels like that all the time when he directs!) and Lisa Cope and Alison Leyland were brilliant as the prima donna actress and the musical mad  actress completely missing the point.

Both plays were hilarious in different ways, and the directors Mark Wall and Doreen Grant deserve their own kudos for putting such an entertaining set together and pulling it off so successfully. Hopefully we’ll  see more plays like this in the future!

Show dates: 23/02/2012 - 25/02/2012