ACT Theatre Reviews 2021-2022

reflected on her life and took the opportunity to tell her husband what she thought of him, how stingy and uninspiring he is. We also got an insight into a younger Annie who had set her cap on Herbert Soppitt. One wondered if she settled for her husband on a rebound or maybe for practical and social reasons but we will never know. Andrew Connolley was super as the stuck in the mud husband, who had a higher opinion of himself than others did. There was a good amount of light and shade to his character throughout. The role of the tipsy local photographer, Henry Ormonroyd was well crafted by Cavan Slate. There was a great deal of humour in the staggering, off balance and slurring of this portrayal. The interaction between himself and Joanne Richards as Lottie could have had more made of it, especially on the line “I recognise that face”. There was the scope for this character to be even more larger than life. Equally as funny was the Fred Dyson character created by Nigel Slater. While not on stage a great deal, he made the most of this part, the facial expressions were hilarious and had me chuckling. The battleaxe, Mrs Northrop, was reminiscent of a number of northern characters that we have seen on TV, a mixture of Ena Sharples and Nora Batty, in my opinion. Anna Evans played this to the full, with a booming voice and straight forward talking she quickly turned the tables on her middle class employers and took the moral high ground, when she delights in telling everyone that she “is” married. Linzi Kay as the non-phased maid Ruby helped deliver the humour of the play as did Phil France as Rev. Clement Mercer. It was nice to see some younger actors take to the stage. Tom Chatterton was confident in the portrayal of Gerard Forbes, that spills the beans about the marital status to the three couples. Emily Stannage was equally confident in her portrayal of Nancy Holmes. I look forward to seeing how these two actors develop in the coming years. The sound and lighting team of Steven Oliver-Grant and Martin Webber, while not having a lot of cue changes provided the right amount of ambiance to this play. The costumes, co-ordinated by Josie Kirby, established the era for the setting well. As the curtain opened on this production there was a spontaneous round of applause from the audience, and rightly so. The large Set/Stage Crew are to be congratulated on providing such an easy on the eye and interesting vista. Virtually the full depth of the stage was used to create a sumptuous drawing room that established the social class of this household. The décor had been carefully chosen, though I did think a picture rail was perhaps missing for this period. The props, co-ordinated by Mick Noonan and Moira Weir, were just right and seemed to fit the period.

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