Ray Cooney, now in his 80s, is an English playwright and actor, his biggest success was ‘Run for Your Wife’ which ran for nine years in London’s West End, becoming London’s longest-running comedy. This was presented by Wanneroo’s Limelight Theatre in August this year.

The Rockingham Theatre Company at ‘The Castle’, Rockingham Theatre, 8 Attwood Way in Rockingham, is presenting this wild two-hour madcap comedy (rather than a farce) on Friday and Saturday evenings at 8.00 pm. The season runs until 3^rd December at 8.00 pm. there is also one matinée on Sunday 27^th November at 2.00 pm

The scene is the sitting room cum dining area in the Harper’s home in Woking. This is a very well designed (David Heckingbottom) and constructed set (male cast with Rob Walker, Danny Joyce), complete with three doors, a window, staircase, TV and ‘working’ gas fire. The furnishings are excellent (Lorraine Howes) and the room really appears lived in – very well done. As the script reminds us, there are ‘nice curtains and rugs’. The wild costumes are by Kerry Tarbuck.

Jackie Hiscox’s lighting was carefully planned and the soundscape well recorded and operated on cue.

        Linda Harper (Kirstie Francis) who has always been easy-going and enjoying the good life, now confides to her neighbour and best friend, Betty (Larraine Heckingbottom) that she has only three years before she will be 40! Already she is feeling that the better side of life is passing her by. Her son Leonard (Callon Leam) is a typical teenager, enjoying life, doing as little as possible and not even noticing she is in the house. Then there is Linda’s loving father in law, Bernard (Ron Gent), senile and still living out his war service in the Air Force.

      Linda’s husband, George (David Heckingbottom) has been a good father to her son, a great family breadwinner, but he is boring with a capital ‘B’. They have been married 17 years and their love life is now down to birthdays and Christmas, if she is lucky.

      At one in the morning, Linda and George stagger home from a business, fancy dress party at the Town Hall. They are closely followed by Betty’s husband, Roger (Peter Scarrott), who is hoping to scrounge a few more free drinks before going home. When Linda goes up to bed, Roger reveals to George that he has had a vasectomy, and that his sex drive has since increased beyond his wildest dreams. Roger confides he now has extracurricular interests on a Monday and Wednesday night. Roger thoroughly recommends that George gets a ‘snip’ too – it will make a new man of him.

       Will George take Roger’s advice, or does Linda have ideas of her own?

This play was written in about 30 years ago, and is now showing a little bit of age. Cooney’s sole efforts were his better scripts, but this comedy has a great plot and plenty of laughs. David Heckingbottom and Kirstie Francis had tremendous chemistry, with Kirstie playing the randy but ignored wife, and David as the boring, and at times ‘disabled’ husband. Both actors not only had perfect comedic, verbal timing, but their hilarious body language doubled the humour.

After years of acting and presenting farces, director Sue Walker ably assisted by Larraine Heckingbottom, have milked every ounce of comedy from the show. All of the actors have literally thrown themselves boldly – and daringly – into the wild and ridiculous situations. Good supporting cast.

Young Callon Leam has come on leaps and bounds since his first show. He has certainly grasped the skills of comedy delivery. A few more years and a new generation of younger comic actors will be required, and he is in line.

At the ‘Castle’, you can always be sure of a warm welcome and a professional show.

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 hilarious show is a combination of three TV episodes, ‘The Arrival’, ‘Love and Marriage’ and ‘The Easter Bunny’. In its 13 years on TV, it won multiple British Academy Television Awards.

Two snippets: Emma Chambers, who played Alice, won comedy actress of the year. Trevor Peacock, the mad Jim Trott, penned Herman’s Hermits big 1960’s hit ‘Mrs Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter’, along with many other songs for Joe Brown, Adam Faith and Billy Fury – no, no, no, no, yes he did!

This Rockingham Theatre Company’s production can be seen at the theatre of comedy, The Castle Theatre, 8 Attwood Way, Rockingham, with weekend shows at 8.00 pm; it runs until 29^th August.

The scene is Dibley, a small village in Oxfordshire. The stage was divided in two (set design Larraine Craig, David Heckingbottom), with one-half ‘the vicarage’ and the other was ‘the village hall’ for council meetings. The sets, as always, were top quality built by the cast, Peter Scarrott and Nancy Soroka. Simple props represented the church and Leticia’s bedroom, but with good, well-planned lighting and sound (Jackie Hiscox, Beth Haigh), the minor venues became realistic and convincing.

     The curtains open to show the church congregation being led by the Rev Pottle (Steve Hall) who collapses. His incompetent verger, Alice (Natasha Birch) checks his pulse, but the poor man has died.

     A couple of weeks later, the Chairman of the Parish Council, David Horton (Danny Joyce) has his welcoming committee gathered in his sitting room, awaiting the arrival of the replacement vicar. The doorbell rings, David’s wimpy son Hugo (Callon Leam) answers the door, and to his father’s horror, a female vicar enters. She is the attractive Rev. Geraldine Granger (Larraine Craig).

     The senile and confused, Jim Trott (Rob Walker) welcomes the vicar with his own inimitable style. Church organist, Letitia Cropley (Helen Clark) rushes forward with a plate of her unique sandwiches, but is pushed aside by farmer Owen (Ian Spencer) who wants to check Geraldine’s udders. The longwinded, pedantic, council secretary, Frank (Terry Winter) starts his garrulous welcoming speech.

      Later Geraldine finds that not all of the Hortons are the same, in fact cousin Simon (David Heckingbottom) is ‘quite dishy’. The vicar then has a major upset at one of her first services, with the angry shouting of a strange woman (Lorraine Howes).

When an audience goes to see a play based on a well-known TV series, the expectation of seeing the ‘real’ characters is often unfair, but I know that this show satisfied even the hardest theatregoer. Three of the characters, the vicar, old Jim Trott and Frank Pickle were truly magnificent clones of the original. The rest of the cast must also have put in hours of rehearsal, talking to themselves in front of a mirror, as their mannerisms and facial expressions were superb. The actors’ perfect accents and diction ranged from Alice’s nasal lugubrious delivery, to Owen’s monotonous drawl.

A TV production has the luxury of editing, cutting rapidly from one venue to the next. On stage, this can often mean a set or costume change, and even though this stage crew (Samuel Taylor aided by Tegan Joyce, Jayden Fern, Lorraine Howes) were splendid in both speed and silence, the flow staggered a little. Rather than have a simple blackout, the village yokel changed a sign on an easel, informing us of the next location; in his own quirky way, this helped keep the audience ‘warmed up’ instead of a crippling, simple blackout.

The costumes were many and varied, from the dignified ministerial garb, to Alice’s cookie wedding dress and her zany animated blouse – all the hard work of the dedicated costumiers, Steve and Lara Hall.

Such is the success of this show that all houses have sold out, so two extra nights have been released! As always, ‘The Castle’ under the talented directorship of David Heckingbottom, has given us another professional and hilarious show. Try to catch it.

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.

This Rockingham Theatre Company’s presentation was showing at the Castle Theatre, 8 Attwood Way, Rockingham, until the 21st September. The two and a half hour show started at 7.30 pm and the Sunday Matinee performance started at 2.00 pm.

On the left apron of the stage is a small set representing the civic hall where the election results are to be announced. The main stage shows the upmarket flat of London MP, Barry Ovis. It is divided in two; these magnificent sets represent the bedroom on the left and a sitting room on the right (construction by cast and Danny Scarrott, Danny Joyce, Shirley Lambert, Daniel Lund and Johnny Murray). The numerous quality props and extras sourced by Sue Lawson and Stephanie Bell.

In the Civic Hall, the janitor (Dave jones) has just finished cleaning the stage and checking the equipment. Two banner boys (Jayden Fern, Ben Naylor) lead the prospective MPs into the hall. The results of the election are announced and Barry Ovis (David Heckingbottom) has been re-elected on his promise to stop the spread of the pornography being promoted by the free-love hippies. His boss, the highly respected Minister for Home Affairs, Sir William Mannering-Brown (Andy Walker) is a randy old goat who is chasing his stunning secretary, Miss Parkyn (Sue Murray).

Later, in Barry’s fashionable flat, his fiancée Jean Fenton (Sue Walker) is getting worried because Barry hasn’t returned home and it is their wedding day. The doorbell rings and there stands another MP, the senile and prudish Wilfred Potts (Terry Winter).

Meanwhile, for some strange reason, Barry is climbing in through the bedroom window dressed in hippie gear, followed by Damina (Teagan Joyce) one of the ‘beautiful people’. Seeing these hippies breaking into the MP’s flat, there is a police raid led by Detective Inspector Ruff (Helen Brown).

When a senior reporter’s wife, Wendy (Claire Ward) arrives at the flat looking for her fair share of MP love, the situation becomes a shambles.

Alison Gibson was the brave director who took on this complex farce. There are more doors and windows, exits and entrances than most farces. The intricate entanglements and slick moves required a dedicated and experienced team. Not every community theatre could pull this show off, but Rockingham is the cream of farces and the compromising moves flowed perfectly and the laughs gushed forth. The dialogue, filled with double-entendres, whilst admirable, wasn’t quite so smooth as a great deal of energy was required for the movement. The actions and sauciness were demanding on the cast, but they grinned and bared it!

The costumes brought a big smile. The lighting and sound were above the normal standard and perfectly on cue (sorry lost my programme with the names in).

This was one of the hardest farces to stage, but it worked very well and the audience loved it.