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.

The two-and-a-half-hour shows, with an updated script, are being performed by The Garrick Theatre Company, and can be seen at the Garrick Theatre, 16 Meadow Street, Guildford on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at 8.00 pm, until 13^th August. The Sunday matinées are on 31^st July and 7^th August at 2.00 pm.

The set is the oak panelled lounge of the Monument House Hotel in Norfolk. The hotel is under renovation and is soon to re-open as a Health Farm.

On one wall there is a set of patio doors, at the back a massive Gothic-style, Jacobean wooden fireplace, and to the right a door leading to the main passageway and kitchen. There are two settees and a couple of armchairs. In a house like this there had to be a palm in a pot standing on a whatnot. This most impressive set was created with a great deal of hard work, by Keith and Heather Abbott. The oil painting of the matriarch was by Carol Koppler. Wendy Goodwin and her backstage crew of Marion West and Karl Cechner had plenty to keep them occupied.

       It is a foggy night in February. In Monument House, the family home of the Tombs since 1784, are two of the remaining descendants of the Borgias, quaint Aunt Hecuba (Kerry Goode) and her warped, teenage niece, Drusilla (Hayley Derwort). They are discussing the good old days, and the various guest who have died in their mansion.

      There is a loud knocking on the front door, and local businessman, Sir Beverley (Keith Abbott) bursts in. He is furious that a large financial agreement with a Tomb relative had not been carried out, and he is now in big trouble.

      Just as things are getting really nasty, a famous writer, Philippa Collins (Sarah House) who is fed up with driving in the dense fog, arrives with her dippy secretary, Daphne (Heather Abbott) looking for a room. They are convinced they were being followed by another car. Feeling the cold, Sir Beverley’s driver, Anthony (Morgan Hyde) comes into the house for a warm drink, bringing with him a tall stranger he noticed wandering around outside.

      This unusual guest turned out to be a TV presenter, Quentin Danesworth (Graham Miles) who seems to know a great deal, perhaps too much, about the house’s history. As he is talking to Hecuba’s friend, Cecily, from the village (Jenny Trestrail), a honeymoon couple arrive. The husband is fawning Robert (Richard Hadler) and his bimbo wife, with bouncing attributes, Miranda (Kylie Calwell) who is also a TV personality.

      With so many undesirable visitors, the name and reputation of the Borgias must be maintained.

Geoff Holt’s lighting and sound design captured the mood of the spooky venue perfectly; and the lighting and sound effects, that required split second timing, were carried out impeccably by Sandra Cechner.

The esteemed director, Lynne Devenish, was generous enough to take on two or three actors who had little or no experience, or had been off the stage for a few years. It always adds extra work, but the whole cast drew together immaculately, giving us a flawless who-dun-it that totally fooled me. However, with their superb stage presence, Kerry Goode and her play nemesis, Keith Abbott were exceptional.

The final curtain call gave a new meaning to ‘curtains for all’ or ‘the actor died on stage’.

A well-presented play, that takes a little bit of concentration, but the very varied and unusual characters brightened up the whole drama. Along with a few directorial innuendos, this comedy gave us numerous laughs. You will die laughing.

This production is being presented in the smart, newly refurbished, Garrick Theatre in Guildford. The seating and visual lines are much improved, and the lighting units gradually changing to the new LEDs. When the pre-show announcement was made, it was barely audible, so perhaps the speakers may be next on the list.

Always a very warm welcome at the Garrick.

The 2-hour farce runs until Saturday 13^th February, with a show each evening at 8.00 pm.

The scene is around 1945, in the sitting room of a vicarage in Merton-cum-Middlewick, southern England.

The rear wall has patio doors leading to the back garden, with a staircase at the side, heading up to the bedrooms, and of course the variety of doors around the room, a necessity for prime, farce confusion. The set was well built (Fred Petersen, Malcolm Brand and Clayton Reichert) with a convincing post war appearance.

Geoff Holt, aided by Fiona Forster, did a splendid job of the light design and sound control.

     The loveable but dippy maid, Ida (Jenny Trestrail) is laying the tea trolley for the vicar’s frivolous, young, fun-loving wife, Penelope (Jennifer Bowman) and her afternoon guest, the miserable, Bible thumping, Miss Skillon (Marsha Holt), who has a monastic outlook on life. When the Reverend Toop (Simon Magill) arrives home, she tackles him on a sensitive topic.

     Later, When Penelope is alone in the house, an old boyfriend, Clive (Timothy Presant) from her days at an acting school, turns up. He is wearing a Lance Corporal uniform, and is trying to have a night out of the local army camp before Sergeant Towers (Graham Miles) spots that he is missing. As they light-heartedly recall and re-enact a couple of their fun productions, Miss Skillon returns and catches the couple in an embarrassing situation.

      As Miss Skillon tells of her horror, an intruder (Patrick Irwin) breaks into the house. At the same time, Penelope’s uncle, the Bishop of Lax (John Lobb) and the locum minister, Rev Humphrey (John Forde) also arrive. With so many religious vestments being worn, no one is too sure who is who any more.

 Although the script was tired, the ingenious direction of Lynne Devenish and the performances of her well-tuned cast, the action was well paced and zany throughout. The three women actors were outstanding, and the men well above average. They all captured the style of a good farce perfectly, and kept the tempo belting along.

Catch it before the season ends.

This two and a half hour production is one part of a trilogy, featuring the ill-fated ‘Chester Dreadnought’; it is showing at the Garrick Theatre, 16 Meadow Street, Guildford.

The performances are nightly at 8.00 pm on a Thursday, Friday and Saturday until Saturday 14^th February. There are Sunday matinees at 2.00 pm.

The set is the interior of a rundown, country cottage. A very good Tudor-style set (Fred Petersen, Keith and Heather Abbott, Peter Gilberthorpe). It is a sitting room with front door leading directly into the room. There is a staircase going to the upstairs bedrooms.

The décor is complete with cobwebs; you could sense the neglect.

     The curtains rise as a massive flash of lightning illuminates the dark room. The sound of thunder and pouring rain can be heard (superb effects – Geoff Holt). There is a pounding on the front door. A scruffy, elderly yokel staggers down the stairs muttering, this Abel Bounty (Keith Abbott) the local handyman. Along with his unkempt wife (Ann Speicher), he has been hired by the new owners to clean out the remote house that has stood empty for a decade.

      He opens the door and the posh new owner, Chester Dreadnought (Graham Miles) staggers in with his suitcase. As the two introduce themselves, a voluptuous woman in a black silk chemise comes down the stairs and warmly hugs Chester. ‘Who is this woman?’ thinks Chester. Could this be Carol (Fiona Forster) a one-night stand from a few months ago?

    The front door opens and to Chester’s horror his loving wife, Patricia (Joy Norton) enters with a leather suitcase. To make things worse, his toffee-nosed mother, Lady Elrood (Marsha Holt) is close behind. There is a massive explosion heard from outside and the eccentric and senile, Lord Elrood (Ray Egan) rushes in with a double barrel shotgun in his hand. Still thinking that he is a General at war, he is worried by the presence of Sergeant Everest (John Forde) and his troops in the surrounding forest.

      As they talk, an old dear who is in touch with the spirits, Miss Partridge (Heather Abbott) wanders into the house, almost unaware of the crowd of people, she is far more interested in the building itself.

Like most farces, the confusion and disasters rely upon people being in the wrong place at the wrong time. However, in this play hapless Chester tries to talk himself out of various situations, only to dig himself in even further.

The play is directed by the talented master of farces, award-winning director, Fred Petersen. Fred has selected an excellent cast. Every actor understood their richly written persona exactly; all being very different and well defined. The costumes (no credit in programme) were exceptional and captured the characters perfectly. It was great teamwork and they all conquered the genre.

I saw the opening night, and with the complex script there were a few first night nerves, but within minutes the cast got into the flow, and by the end the farce was perfectly paced and bringing plenty of laughs.

A quality farce from a brilliant team.

This 130-minute, light-hearted comedy can be seen at the Garrick Theatre, 16 Meadow Street, Guildford each Thursday, Friday and Saturday night at 8.00 pm until Saturday 18^th December.

The action of the play takes place in 1948. It is set in the sitting room of a medical researcher’s home. The room has pale turquoise walls with an expensive, white, winged armchair and matching settee. The rear wall is a balcony overlooking the river and city.

The set was beautifully designed (Rodney Palmer and Lynda Stubbs), solidly built, and tastefully dressed, but unfortunately the ‘phone mouth piece had dropped out, and so the users spoke into space.

Even the massive cockroach that crawled the full height of the wall before taking off, liked the set. The actors never flickered – true courage.

       The maid, Betty (Belinda Djurdjevic) tidies up, whilst the smartly dressed, intelligent lady of the house, Clare Martin (Mary Murphy) is chatting to her best friend Isobel. The slightly neurotic and bossy, Isobel (Tayla Howard) is telling of her engagement to Nigel (Brendan Ellis), a scruffy self-employed artist.

      Clare explains how her husband, well-respected doctor, Sir Paul (Rhett Clarke) has returned home from a Cornish fishing trip with a disabled patient whom he wishes to have live in their house, rather than at the local hospital.

      The beautiful, longhaired patient, Miranda Trewella (Natalie Aung Than) it seems, is paralysed from the waist downwards, and so butler / chauffeur Charles (Rodney Palmer) has the task of carrying her into the house. Miranda flutters her eyelashes – that are longer than the finest Highland cow – as she flirts with all of the men. Jealous, Clare asks that Miranda be taken to her room, where she can be cared for by Nurse Carey (Christine Ellis), who is waiting, never suspecting for a second, the VERY strange events that will happen next.

The costumes (Lorna Mackie, Lynda Stubbs) were most stylish, perfect for the era and in Miranda’s case, superbly constructed. I heard Miranda’s statistics are 34-22-$34 a kilo.

The lighting on the city scene backdrop was a little poor, but with such a shallow stage, it is very difficult not to get the window frame shadows on the backcloth. However, the lighting effects for the storm were very good (Clayton Reichert) and the small amount of thunder good, but could have been further supplemented. Joshua Davies operated both the sound and lights skilfully.

The direction, by Rodney Palmer assisted by Lynda Stubbs, went very well, with the strong cast grasping their characters superbly. Natalie, Belinda, and Mary performed particularly well. Christine seemed to feel at home with the comedy genre, raising a few laughs.

The humour is subtle, but with some very dry lines. Plenty of chuckles throughout. A most pleasant night out. Recommended.

Joanna is a world respected author, and one of Australia’s most successful writers. Her themes of ‘feminism’ and the ‘suppressed masses by the privileged’, has, at times, brought her writing vitriolic opposition, whilst others have said that she inhabits her characters and is a leader with compassion.

The Garrick Theatre Club presentation can be seen at the Garrick Theatre, 16 Meadow Street, Guildford. The curtain rises on this 90-minute production every Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at 8.00 until 18^th October. There are Sunday matinees at 2.00 pm.

The setting is an artist’s studio at 5.30 on a Thursday evening. The room is painted in light grey with silver woodwork (naff). Around the walls are tapestries, drapes and paintings. There are piles of artworks of several genres leaning on the walls waiting to be completed. Centre stage is a double bed, to the side a sofa and an artist’s table loaded with paints. Good Bohemian atmosphere.

       A young artist, Isabel (Katrina Murphy), is restoring van Eyck’s ‘Arnolfini Portrait’ depicting a young man and his pregnant wife. The front door opens and a man enters, he is William (Gino Cataldo) Isabel’s ex-husband, her love from a relationship that quite simply and inexplicably crumbled.

      William is an internationally famous film star, and is about to fly to Paris to get married for a second time. However, Isabel – still deeply in love with him – has contacted him and asked for 90 minutes of his time before the wedding ceremony, which William has agreed to.

      At great inconvenience to himself, William gives Isabel the 90 minutes she wants. In this time, they go through their life together since meeting, examining the rough with the smooth. They appear to prefer self-reflection rather than truly studying their relationship together.

   Will William, seeing their bonds as unbreakable, cancel the immanent wedding? Alternatively, will he leave his memories behind?

Director Brendan Ellis and his assistant Dale James have selected a wonderful cast for such an emotionally challenging play. Katrina was outstanding; she was alive, vibrant and totally involved with the character that she was playing. She was loving, sexy, caring and at one stage had tear-filled eyes. I heard someone saying that they thought Gino was slow to warm up, but he played a man that had been summoned by his ex-wife to have a meaningful chat. William would have been most apprehensive and defensive. In the script, it is clear that William has not been fully aware of the true depth of Isabel’s love for him. With the flashbacks, both actors changed their demeanour back and forth perfectly. It was in these flashbacks that both actors had tricky monologues, spoken directly to the audience with lowered lighting and just a single spot illuminating them.

Clayton Reichert and Josh Harris’ lighting was warm and soft for the flashbacks and of a cold hue for real life. Most effective. Clayton also designed the sound that was accurately synchronised by Angela Donlan and Brendan Ellis.

I must apologise for the fact that for the first time in five years I had a visual migraine and felt really ill, mid play. When I had my head in my hands, sitting in the front row, the poor actors musty have thought that I was hating every second. Again, sorry.

A tricky play to perform, but very well carried off by the magnificent cast who captured the emotions beautifully.

It is being presented by The Garrick Theatre Club, at 16 Meadow Street, Guildford, showing at 8.00 pm (some adverts wrongly state 7.30) nightly until 14th September, with one matinee on Sunday 8th September at 2.00 pm.

The scene is the sitting room of a Parisian apartment. The set is black drapes for the side walls with a lilac rear wall of flats decorated with African tribal masks. There are two white settees, a drinks cabinet and a small side table with a vase of flowers.

Two 11-year-old Parisian boys, Ferdinand and Bruno, were playing in the local park when Ferdinand shattered both of Bruno’s incisor teeth. Bruno’s shopkeeper father, Michel (Jarrod Buttery) is middle-class and easy going. Bruno’s mother, Veronique (Sherryl Spencer) writes books about the poverty in Sudan and is much more serious in her approach to the world.

In a civilised manner, Veronique has invited the attacker’s parents around for coffee and homemade clafoutis to discuss the situation. When the other parents arrive, they find to their horror that the father, Alain (Dean McAskil) is highflying solicitor representing a major drug company and his subdued wife, Annette (Anna Head) a financial planner.

Veronique thinks that the best way to get a good recompense for their ‘seriously injured’ and ‘perfect’ son is to ingratiate herself. Similarly, Annette is charming, but strongly defensive of her son. The husbands? Well they were lads once, and don’t really want to be there anyway.

It soon becomes apparent that the smooth approach is not going to work. Just when a solution appears to be taking place, a brief side comment by one of the parents will throw the whole situation into havoc again. When the pressure is turned up, allegiances change, attitudes alter, Annette develops a nervous stomach and the parents behave much worse than their boys ever did.

The decision was made to split this 80-minute play into two parts. A strange move as this whole play relies upon the build up of tension and suspense; although the cast were magnificent by returning after the break fully charged, for the audience the idea was not a wise one. I would be surprised if the director, Lynne Devenish, made that choice.

The cast selection was perfect. Four exceptional performers, who on the whole, have not been seen regularly enough. They flowed faultlessly from one mood to another, as each one rode the rollercoaster of emotion. The changes in pace were perfectly controlled as passages of anger, admiration, frustration and pure hell arrived.

Clayton Reichert’s lighting was simple but effective, with Mike McAllan’s sound effects being flawlessly operated by Elizabeth McAskil.

A great script, very well presented. All parents have been in similar situations; however, here it was extremely funny. A quality production in the award winning league.