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 wonderful observation of family life and attitudes in the 1960s was published in 1997 and first produced the same year. The play is thought to be semiautobiographical.

This fine production from the Darlington Theatre Players can be seen nightly at the Marloo Theatre, Marloo Road, Greenmount until 21^st March. Curtain up at 8.00 pm.

The stage is divided into three areas. To the left is a hospital bed complete with drips etc. At the rear of the stage is a raised area representing the mother’s home, with black drapes for the walls. The simplicity of the scene is compensated for by the high quality of the props, ranging from an old record player to antique furniture (Carol Hall).

On the right is a turntable stage with a 1960s kitchen on one-half and on rotation a comfortable 1990s sitting room. Again, the extras make the scene, such as little touches as the calendar changing as the years go by. Another clever set from George Boyd.

       The opening scene is an intensive care unit of the local hospital. An elderly woman takes a deep breath through her oxygen mask. This is Kate Macrae (Amanda Minutillo). Her loving and caring daughter, Judy Macrae (Kerri-Anne Mulley) and her son, who has travelled from France to see her, visit the mother. The son, Stephen Macrae (Paul Reed) is more interested in getting back home, than talking to his matriarchal mother. Even on her deathbed, Kate is not giving up on being the boss.

      As they, sit chatting in the ward, Kate recalls her now departed, racially bigoted and politically one-eyed husband, Ron. The mother, despite having suffered at his hand for years, stills seems to show affection for the bully.

      Later at the mother’s home, the siblings are going through old photos and letters in preparation for her passing. As they talk, there is a flashback to the stormy lifestyle in their 1963 childhood home, where the father Ron Macrae (Richard Milner) is trying to run rehearsals for a community play. A younger Kate Macrae (Irma McCullen) is trying to help a very nervous, incompetent actress, Maureen Donahue (Alyssa Burton – hilarious) struggle through her lines. Director, Ron is far too busy admiring the many ‘qualities’ of another actress, Claire (Rachel Bartlett).

      A couple of years later, in 1965, as the family are eating their breakfast, the father is ranting as usual and the young son, Stephen Macrae (Ben Constantin) tells his kid sister, Judy Macrae (Elanor Cooper-Ritter) that he is going to leave home and his Uni course, travel abroad and become a film director.

       Does the passing of the years mellow this family?

As the scenes are many (two dozen) and quite short, I suspect that this play was written with TV or cinema in mind, with simple intercutting between scenes. Despite clever set design and fast changes by the crew, the flow was inevitably broken up.

David Bain operated both Greg Rusha’s sound design, and Michael Hart’s intricate lighting design.

Director Hayley Derwort and her assistant Rachel Vonk are two of Marloo’s younger members, both of them directing for the first time. They were faced with a large number of very different characters in the script, but this did not faze them, the interaction between the actors, the pace and the chemistry all worked well. The acting was such that the lady behind me in the audience kept forgetting it was a play, and became quite irate at the attitude of the father – especially to immigration – and to the son’s feelings for his mother, with comments like ‘He can’t say that!’ and ‘That is terrible!’. A sure sign that the cast and directing are working as one. A very good first stab at direction, the slickness will come after a few shows.

This play is very different to David Williamson’s normal, easy-going, fun plays. It is a wonderful, punchy observation of family life, combined with the outdated viewpoints; it is amazing how much opinions have changed for the better in just a couple of decades. We also get a brief glimpse at the employment conditions of the 60s. The younger Kate Macrae (Irma McCullen) captured the wife’s torment perfectly and her spar with Stephen (Ben) is one of the play’s highlights.

Rachel was also responsible for the costumes, which demanded styles from several eras, from 1960s flares and Paisley, to the attire of the 2000s. Her clever outfits described the fashion and personality of the wearer instantly.

Certainly worth seeing. There are plenty of laughs, but with many occasions where you will cringe at the diabolical dialogue. Very well acted, another winning production from Marloo.