This two-hour play can be seen at the KADS Theatre in Barber Street, Town Square Centre, Kalamunda each Wednesday, Friday and Saturday until 28^th May.

For any new people in the area and potential audience members, may I suggest that your beautiful posters and first-class website mention which theatre the show is at, and where the theatre is situated?

The scene is the year 2014, in the shabby lounge room of Herringbone Manor in Sussex. Due to encroaching poverty, the buildings have fallen into disrepair, with many of the artworks and treasures having been sold off. The set is the work of Richard Woolman, Bill Weighell, Paul Hodges and the designer Geoff Rumsey. The stage manager is Liam Rogers.

       Act One – The pedantic and painfully overbearing, Lord Alfred Herringbone (Paul Anderson) is reading his ‘Times’ and sipping on a whisky. Meanwhile, his tolerant wife, Lady Penelope (Marsha Holt) tries to ignore Alfred’s demands for perfect syntax. Their aging butler, Wick (Geoff Rumsey) is now a luxury they can barely afford, but as the Wicks family have been attendants and loyal servants to the Herringbones for centuries, they keep him on.

       On returning from holiday, their daughter Caroline (Rachel Vonk) suggests that they contact her friend Alyce (Natasha Smith) who works as a producer’s assistant on a TV show, dedicated to saving old manors. Will she be able to help? What will she unearth?

 

     Act Two – We find ourselves back three centuries at the beginning of the Herringbone dynasty, where the first butler, Wicks (Les Marshall) takes care of handsome, debonair Amberley Herringbone (Paul Reed) who is being chased by a gypsy girl (Natasha Smith). When he rejects her, she puts a terrible curse on the House of Herringbone for generations to come. Perhaps antiques expert, Justine truelove (Charlotte Weber) may hold the answer to the misfortune.

 

The two stories are both very funny, the first Act was slick and worked well, however, the second Act suffered from the ‘Curse of the Herringbones’. With only days to go, two actors had to withdraw due to severe illness; unfortunately, this left the second story under rehearsed. A little bit of script editing would also help, but it was a good storyline and well thought out.

Paul Anderson gave a hilarious, supercilious performance, with Martha Holt brilliant as the frustrated, long suffering wife – great chemistry between the pair. Geoff Rumsey was perfect as the present day, gracious Wicks with all his subtle quirks.

Quite a complex lighting schedule designed by Don Allen and operated smoothly by Tiernan Stevens. Julie Hickling’s soundscape was operated by Jason Millman.

Having the author direct his own play can be a risk, but Bob Charteris has had plenty of experience both on and off the stage, and with this very good cast he did extremely well.

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.