Charity No: 260045

Founded 1937

Ladies Day

The play set off at a cracking pace and never wavered! The action started with four women filleting fish in a Hull factory in auto-pilot mode, talking about anything mundane to ease the boredom of a monotonous job, interspersed with bursts of Tony Christie songs.

The props department excelled themselves in creating ‘fish’ which slapped about the work benches so realistically!  The diverse nature of the ladies’ characters made it clear we were in for a real treat.

Linda Harvey as Pearl was leaving and suggested they have a day at the races.  Not any old races – this was the year that Royal Ascot came North to York!  The quick-fire dialogue raised spontaneous applause at the end of every scene and obviously fired the ladies up to belt out the next barrage of bawdy one-liners.  They transformed themselves from white coated, white capped and white wellied drudges to ladies dressed to the nines right on stage in front of a stunned audience.

Shelley (Rachel Smith) as the wannabe with horrendous money problems was at her abrasive best, and in a scintillating slinky red outfit annihilated the ticket tout (Iain Johnson) and convinced the girls the 4 tickets they found in a purse were theirs to use!

The champagne flowed and Pearl’s surprising knowledge of racing terms set us all wondering how she knew this.  Colin Mannion as the TV pundit coached the girls in the tic-tac with hilarious results and given this play was no place for men to take over he gave the part just the right amount of presence.

Jo Jefferson as Jan gave probably the best drunk performance ever seen at The Playhouse.

With not horse in sight the excellent sound effects and raucous shouting of the girls convinced us we had seen the races!

Debbie Forsyth as the mousey Linda, unable to throw of the shackles of a bullying mother finds solace in a tender scene with an Irish jockey (Nevin Ward) whose wonderful lilting accent had us believing he was truly ravenously hungry.  Robert le Mare gave a good performance as the drunken, broke gambler and as the final race saw their last horse, aptly named Broken Dreams, come second, they prepare reluctantly to return to their sad existence.

Pearl ‘found’ her lost lover of 7 years – Barry the bookie (Jerry Harvey) and had a poignant ethereal last waltz with him.

This play was the perfect balance of pathos, comedy and darn good acting complemented by a brilliantly simple set.  The final scene built up to a crescendo as the kind supervisor deftly played by Stephen Rouse read out the newspaper article that revealed that, due to a steward’s enquiry, the girls had hit the jackpot.  The four jumping up with a final YES! said it all – and amazed the audience with a happy ending!! 

Congratulations to director Christine Ward – she picked a sure-fire winner with this play!

 

M B Gill

[this review appeared in the Pateley Bridge & Nidderdale Herald 16.5.2008]

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