This two-hour romance romp that goes awry, explodes at 8.00 pm every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night until 7^th May at the Rockingham Castle Theatre, 8 Attwood Way, Rockingham, where you can always be assured of a warm welcome and a smile from Sam Taylor’s team.

The scene is about the year 2000 in an upmarket flat in Brighton, on the south coast of England. The bedroom is on the left of the stage – the wall is cutaway, with the bedroom door leading into the sitting room. At the rear is a passage, leading to the front door and spare bedroom.

As always with ‘The Castle’ sets, the quality is outstanding. The contemporary sunflower and white walls gave an immediate visual lift. The bedroom furniture, the comfortable settee and wooden floor shouted luxury. (Constructed by David Heckingbottom, Peter Scarrott, Terry Winter, Danny Joyce and Callon Leam). Slick stage management by Sue Lawson and Stephanie Bell. The lighting and sound were smoothly handled by Callon Leam.

      It is morning and Gordon (Peter Scarrott) is getting dressed. He has just had his once a week ‘treat away from home’, a night with glamourous, divorcée Harriet (Larraine Heckingbottom). Harriett just purrs sex in order to conquer her financial problems. What poultry dealer, Gordon doesn’t know, is that Harriett is ‘working double shifts’ and on another day of the week, is entertaining another wealthy businessman, trawler owner Alec (Danny Joyce) and presenting him with the same bills as Gordon already pays.

      One day, an old friend of Harriet arrives. She is smart and bright Anne (Helen Brown), who is married to an alcoholic Kiwi vet, Richard (Rob Walker). Deciding that her marriage is floundering, she arrives to stay. Until now, ‘sweet and innocent’ Harriett has kept her two lovers apart, whilst her husband in Peru.

      Veterinary surgeon, inebriated Richard snuggles up on the settee with a fur stole that in his stupor, he hopes to cure. However, by now, the lovers’ wives naïve Magda (Jacki Gahan) and straight-laced Mildred (Lorraine Howes) are starting to suspect something is going on, and are closing in on Harriett’s little game.

A good farce has a selection of ‘revolving’ doors – this show has 5, and they are fully employed with split-second timing.

This is a genre that can collapse in the wrong hands. My expectations at the ‘Castle’ are always high, but I have never been let down.

This is a thoroughly brilliant romp, perfectly handled by director David Heckingbottom. In the second Act it gives us a cast faced with a complex, intricate script and yet the physical disasters were perfectly and accurately carried out. Not a beat was missed as the finely observed characters bungled through each fast moving scene.

Leading lady, Larraine, was magnificent and was well supported by her crippled lovers, Peter and Danny. Her sexy friend Helen, with her beautifully underplayed drunk husband, Rob made the show a great laugh. The cheated-on wives Jacki and Lorraine, were delightful.

How often do you see the actors line up for the final bow, and then bend in an uncoordinated wave? This director had a fun twist to this show, with a final fight for Harriett’s hand.

Tickets are now on sale for the August spectacular. Be quick, these shows are almost always sold out.

This two-hour presentation of chuckles by the Rockingham Theatre Company can be seen at the pleasant ‘Castle Theatre’, 8 Attwood Way, Rockingham on Friday and Saturday evenings at 8.00 until 16^th May. There is one matinee at 2.00 pm on Sunday 10^th May.

In the script, it is the present day in Wisconsin, but thankfully, the cast do not have American accents. For this production, I think the location could be London in the middle of a severe winter.  

The set is the lounge of an ultramodern house, where the TV control also activates numerous unreliable gadgets in the home. The very ‘active’ set design is by Larraine Craig and David Heckingbottom, and built by the cast, along with Ian Spencer, Nancy Soroka, Terry Winter and the back stage crew of Callon Leam, Tegan Joyce and Danny Joyce.

The stage manager had a myriad of effects to setup, which coupled with the numerous sound and lighting effects (Callum Leam and Shelley Smith) added greatly to the zany humour of the play. The unfortunate costume seamstress, Lara Hall, must be kept busy each night after the show reassembling various garments.

         With an arrival like that of a genie in a pantomime, brash and outspoken home developer, Mr. Broadbent (Mike Murphy) arrives at his ‘House of the Future’. A home that he built four years ago, but is having trouble selling as many of the gadgets – such as the automatic closet – require adjustment, or simply do not work. With $300,000 tied up in these gadgets, Broadbent is desperate to sell.

       At last, hen-pecked Fred (Rob Walker) and haughty, domineering, Gladys McNicoll (Alison Gibson) are showing interest – well Gladys is, as poor, long suffering Fred is not allowed to think or have opinions.

      Broadbent invites them to stay in the house for a weekend, and to ensure that the sale goes smoothly he has enlisted his proficient and ingenious secretary, Casey (Natasha Birch) to make the couple feel at home. The young, honest but soon to become very confused, real estate agent, Ben (Lee Walker) demonstrates the house’s many gimmicks, and presses them to buy.

       The crotchety and blunt hypochondriac, Mr Cott (Pete Scarrott) is the technician that fitted the technology, and is called back by Broadbent to fine-tune the equipment. The developer thinks some tasty food might soften the potential buyers, so he fills the fridge and hires the loveable, but accident prone, Sue (Beth Haigh) who has just qualified as a chef.

        As the snow outside becomes deeper, Walter Brooks (Danny Joyce), Casey’s insufferable, future father-in-law gets snowed up and arrives at the house looking for shelter. 

       Disaster follows disaster.

Director Larraine Craig has had oodles of experience both as an actor and director. She can come up with some brilliant ideas and characterisation, but even so, there was a patch in the first Act where the cast had trouble melding and getting up the pace. However, very soon the belly laughs and guffaws that we are accustomed to at The Castle were flowing freely.

The highlights were Ben being fed cake, and the uppity Gladys having a conversation on the couch but totally missing the point.

Body and soul went into the performances; enhanced by both the clever visual gadgets and the guaranteed farcical states of undress. Good teamwork. Another winner for Rockingham.

Another huge success for The Castle. A quick survey showed that a third of the audience were first time visitors. Not surprisingly, their next show in August has almost sold out! How many companies can say that? Well done once again.

The Rockingham Theatre Company has excelled once again. Their rendition of this classic has just finished its season at the comfortable, Rockingham Castle Theatre, 8 Attwood Way, Rockingham. Curtain up at 7.30 pm, led to two and a half hours of mayhem, each Friday and Saturday night until 30^th August.

In fitting with the theme of the play, the reasonable ticket price included a very tasty French platter with meats, cheese, olives, fruit and baguette (catering by Sue Walker, Carol Fisher).

As always at The Castle, the set was of an extremely high quality. The scene is René’s Café in 1942 war-torn France. The café is well furnished and an impressive street scene can be seen through the large shop window at the rear of the stage. For some scenes, a sliding wall and potbelly stove were moved to reveal the pantry behind (clever set design by Rob Walker).

On one side of the stage apron was an office set, complete with authentic antique telephone and props (furnishings and props by Sue Lawson and Stephanie Bell).

         It is early morning and René (Andy Walker – in top form) is opening his Café René for another ‘typical’ day. Stepping into the follow-spot he confides to the audience that he has a wretched life with his irksome wife, Édith (Sharyn McCaskey). He goes on to tell us how he is hiding two British airmen (Jayden Fern, Damien McGovern) and so could be shot as a traitor at any minute.

        He starts the day with a cuddle from his sexy waitress, Yvette (Tegan Joyce), followed by another passionate embrace from his other secret love, Mimi (Carissa MacPherson).

         René’s café is the central meeting place for the German officers. First into the café is the emotionless, Colonel Von Strohm (Danny Joyce – loved the cinema) and his latest flame, the sizzling Helga (Sue Murray – my glasses steamed up). The sexiest man in the Italian army, Captain Alberto Bertorelli (Peter Scarrott) joins the couple at their table.

         As the pianist (Callon Lean) plays in the background, Édith decides to entertain the troops with her diabolical, off-key singing. Meanwhile, the master of disguises, Monsieur LeClerc (Jethro Pidd) enters selling strange parrots. The gay Lieutenant Gruber (Sam Taylor), who lusts after René, is unfortunately misreading signals from the nervous café owner.

        ‘Like a phantom in the night’, the underground spy, Michelle (Sue Walker) creeps into the café. She tries to warn everyone that Gestapo officer, Herr Flick (Ian Spencer) is on his way. Flick has a huge sexual demand burning inside him, but has no idea how to fulfil it.

         An English spy, Crabtree (Rob Walker), who is dressed in a French policeman’s uniform and speaks in a thick French accent wishes everyone ‘Good moaning’. He has barely finished the incomprehensible sentence when the nastiest officer in the area appears, the dreaded General Von Schmelling (John Castle). Several poor local peasants (Benjamin Steel, Bethany Cope-Thomas, David Jones and Jackie Grahan) are moved swiftly out of the way to make room for this Nazi officer and his entourage.

         Can René and his resistance friends outwit the Nazis? Can the valuable painting of the ‘Madonna with the big boobies’ stay hidden?

After selecting a good solid cast, who closely resembled the appearance of the BBC TV troupe, talented director, Alison Gibson and her capable assistant, Helen Brown, controlled this large team well. They managed to retain the appropriate accents, and kept the pace moving along wonderfully well. The visual comedy, such as the antics with the knockwurst, squeezed all of the humour out of the situation and had the audience crying with laughter. Slick performances all round, with good subtle humour impeccably delivered.

There were many scene changes, but stage manager, Mathew Fisher and his assistant, Anne-Marie Knox ensured their crew were speedy and silent in moving the props, most impressive.

Makeup and ‘unusual’ props by Bernie Spencer, were a challenge but perfectly executed. The lighting (Jackie Hiscox, Rebecca Fisher) and sound (Ian Brown) crew had a few unusual demands put onto them, but they came up with the goods. The cinema effect worked particularly well.

Finally, there were the costumes. Such a production calls for various uniforms, here we had police, British airmen, several Hitlers, German officers as well as the waitresses and French locals, a huge wardrobe produced by Jeannie Watkins and major sponsor, Warnbro dressmaker, Lara Hall. Both gave most generously of their time and material in order to create the most authentic looking outfits.

The directors have created a good solid team of actors, with great rapport. Another masterpiece from The Castle gang, which ensured full houses for the season.