This riotously funny two and a quarter hour show is being presented by the Garrick Theatre Club, and can be seen at the Garrick Theatre, 16 Meadow Street, Guildford. The performances are every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night at 8.00 pm until Saturday 10^th December. There are matinées on Sunday 27^th November and 4^th December at 2.00 pm.

The scene is the present day, in two nearby London flats.

The stage is divided down the middle. To one side is George and Jessica’s trendy and luxurious flat; complete with white leather couch and contemporary, original paintings on the wall. The other side of the stage is Brian and Hilary’s more staid home, with its unusual wallpaper, a corduroy couch and prints of famous paintings. Designer, Ray Egan has put a great deal of thought into each of the sitting rooms, with many little extra features. He was helped in the construction by Adrian Ashman, Fred Petersen, Owen Davis and Graeme Dick.

The show is stage manged by Graeme Dick and Marion West.

The complex, fast moving script requires slick lighting and sound control – all worked well thanks to Geoff Holt and Mark Owen.

       Middle-aged Brian (Joe Isaia) has the chance of an affair with an attractive young woman, Wendy (Lindsay Cliff), but has nowhere to take her. Thankfully, Brian’s best friend, George (Andrew Govey), comes to the rescue. George’s wife, Jessica (Siobhán Vincent) is away on a work trip in America, and so Brian can use their flat on a Wednesday afternoon whilst George is at his darts match.

     When overweight Brian suggests to his wife, Hilary (Kylie Isaia) that he fancies trying jogging, Hilary is so pleased to see him taking care of himself, that she buys him a bright red track suit for his park runs.

     Brian arrives at George’s flat and finds Wendy, hot and ready – unfortunately, within minutes of his arrival, George’s wife returns home a day early and catches them.

     How will Brian talk his way out of that?

Director, Alice Dale has been part of community theatre, professional theatre and WA TV business for many years. When your brother (Stanley Baxter) was one of the funniest men ever in Scotland, then the genes are bound to help, and not surprisingly Alice’s direction was superb, inventive and slick.

Some of the audience may recall the Whitehall Farces of the 1960s / 70s, with its star philanderer, Brian Rix. Whitehall has always been held as the ultimate producer in farces, and Rix as the best ever, panic stricken lover. This production is the nearest to I have seen to the old days. The script was ingenious, the set superb, the direction perfect and the whole cast unbelievable. The panic stricken faces, the desperate moves, the crouched stance ready to escape, the tremor in the voice – all captured perfectly.

This one of the best structured farces that I have seen. It is fast paced and so takes exceptional actors to carry it off, and that is what we have here – the very best of the best. A must see production.

Presented by the Wanneroo Repertory Inc., this two and a quarter hour, fast moving, hilarious show can be seen at the Limelight Theatre, Civic Drive in Wanneroo each Thursday, Friday and Saturday night at 8.00 until Saturday 13^th August.

The action takes place about 1988, in two venues, a maisonette in Wimbledon and another flat in Streatham. Two adjoining suburbs in south London.

The stage is divided in half, one side a plush, well-furnished apartment – Streatham; the other side of the stage is a cottage-style flat in Wimbledon, with exposed brickwork and large patterned graphic wallpaper. Great design by Robert Vincent and Carol Keppler. The set was built by the cast and techs – Wally Fry, Zach Ozolins, Grace and Kim Elford.

The settees and furnishings, however, belong to both flats so at times the same sofa could have a person from each flat, speaking to each other by ‘phone – a tricky setup, but it worked beautifully.

Some great props gathered by Colleen Hopkins, Andrew Govey and The Vincents.

As well as being judged on the immediately visible set, a quality design like this, has that extra touch. When the kitchen door opened, there was a light on – not just a black void – and the kitchen dresser, with crockery was visible through the doorway.

        The curtains open to the tune of ‘Love and Marriage’, revealing two women still in their night attire, looking anxiously out of their lounge windows. Then, in unison they telephone the police. One woman Mary Smith (Christine Smith) calls the Wimbledon Police Station, the other Barbara Smith (Susannah Bell), Streatham, both with the same story, their husband, John Smith is missing.

        With thick bandaging on his head and slight concussion, London cabbie owner, John Smith (Gordon Park) is helped into his Wimbledon home by a detective, D S Troughton (R. J. Smolders). John’s wife, Mary is so relieved to have her husband back, especially on hearing he was the hero of a mugging attack. As the group is chatting, into the flat wanders John’s best friend, Stanley Gardner (Andrew Govey), a yob with a thick mullet haircut who lives in the upstairs flat. Before leaving, the detective asks if he could clear up a puzzle, the hospital had two addresses for John – why was that?

        Later, whilst Mary is making a cup of tea, John confides in Stanley that he is a bigamist, with two flats and two wives. He is sharing his time between them, and at present, according to his precisely planned diary, he is actually in the wrong home. He should be in Streatham and not Wimbledon.

        As John is leaving for his other home, a newspaper reporter (Tom Melanko) arrives. If John’s photo should hit the press, his duplicity will be exposed. Panic stricken, John arrives at his other home, only to find that his second wife, Barbara, is describing him to her local detective, D S Porterhouse (Peter Boylen). Barbara’s new, overtly gay, upstairs neighbour, Bobby (Chris McCafferty) calls to introduce himself.

       Even with the help of Stanley, how much longer can John fool his two wives, and those around him?

Susan Vincent is an accomplished actress, as well as an experienced and admired director, with every theatre skill possible acquired over her lifetime in the theatre. She has also had experience in broadcasting. Here she directs the perfect troupe in a brilliant farce.

The cast is divided into three groups, the panicking John and Stanley who look like star fish as their arms and legs flail around. Then there are the two confused and emotionally upset wives and the two detectives who are the straight men – Bobby is definitely not a straight man.

Gordon, who never does eye contact when he is acting, uses it to his advantage when he blankly looks around, with fear in his eyes, as he thinks up the next mad excuse. Andrew has wonderful chemistry with Gordon as they try to fool the police and the two wives. The girls were delightful, scantily clad (costumes Joyce Gilbert) so sexy without being tasteless. Susannah was the hard, angry wife and poor Christine as the heartbroken, screaming spouse, devastated by the situation. The timing was absolutely perfect, the delivery of every double-entendre went without a hitch. The cast nailed it.

Limelight is accustomed to full houses, but this show was a sell-out almost instantly.

One of the best farces that I have seen.

The 1935 Hitchcock film was possibly one of the cinema’s first thrilling spy films; it was followed by the 1959 film starring Kenneth More, which was much softer in its approach. Now we have this VERY light-hearted, multi-award winning version, which is the fifth longest running London West End play and it had 771 performances on Broadway.

It is August 1935 in England and Scotland. The opening scene is Richard Hannay’s apartment, across the road from Broadcasting House in central London.

There are few flats or pieces of scenery but masses of nifty gadgets (Dave Browning); the whole effect is by well-chosen furniture and some ingenious props (designer Robert Benson-Parry, props Carryn McLean).

The costumes were numerous, from the exotic to the plain weird.

Wardrobe mistress, Joyce Gilbert, had to make many of the costumes capable of rapid change. The wardrobe team built plenty of humour into the costumes, with their good lateral thinking.

   Handsome, suave Richard Hannay (Gino Catalado), the hero of the story, is sitting in his flat. After an awful day, he decides to relax by going to the theatre. Whilst watching a variety show, a foreign woman enters his box and takes a seat. She is Anna Schmidt (Emma Shaw), a mysterious woman who within minutes is wildly firing a pistol. Chased by the police, Hannay takes her back to his rooms.

     Anna warns Hannay that she is being pursued by a secret agent who is trying to kill her. She points out of the window to the dark street below; two men (Gordon Park, Andrew Govey) in cream overcoats are staring back at the window – hired killers?

     Hannay is hunted throughout the Highlands of Scotland, with some daring escapes. Will he ever find the truth about the ‘39 Steps’?

Director James Hough-Neilson certainly had his hands full. Although there were only four cast members to deal with, there were about 130 different roles, 100 sound effects (Pat McGinn) and about 120 lighting changes (Wally Fry). The follow spots (operated by Jordan Jensen, Caroline Kaye) gave a touch of the 1930s theatre atmosphere.

This style of play relies upon the rapid pace being maintained. The actors – not surprisingly with the amount of work – flagged slightly towards the end, but the stage crew (Pearl Jensen, Christine Smith, Dale Seaman, Karen Thompson, Susie Benson-Parry) led by Bronwyn Hammond and Polly Waugh were swift and well organised, good team work. There were many mechanical props that required operation, such as the names of the station flashing by and even the dagger in the dead woman’s back!

The four actors were outstanding, moving smoothly from one character to another. One language and accent to another – even one sex to another, often all in one brief cameo scene.

This play is certainly not for those who studied Buchan’s book for their school English; although the characters and the plot are true to the book, the production is a whacky show, verging on Monty Python and even pantomime at times. The audience loved it, with spontaneous applause regularly throughout. It is great fun, but like most of Limelight’s productions, the whole season was sold out before opening night.

If you wish to see the show, you will need to put your name down on the reserve or cancellation list. A good, solid, delightful production with everyone pulling their weight.