first line of dialogue to her last. Her voice was as clear as a bell and her characterisation as a down-to-earth cleaner never wavered. Her line ‘my back teeth are swimming’ was perfectly delivered as was the rest of her dialogue. She had the audience with her from the off. Both ladies were terrific. Vivienne Thornber and Neil Tranmer were Mary Haigh and Allan Haigh. Neither are strangers to the stage and it showed. Both were totally convincing as a long-time married couple. Both very funny and never missed a beat with argumentative dialogue. They were a treat to watch, as they always are. A pleasant surprise was seeing Laura Kay as Julia Moore. I’m used to Laura playing pleasant parts. In this play she was not pleasant. She owned her character’s waspish interactions and barely concealed snobbishness. Her outfits were each more glamorous or expensive than the last - (costumes were excellent throughout). She was also very convincing in her scenes with Liam Husband. You really believed that she thought the world of the Doctor, and detested his current wife. A challenging role brought to life with a great deal of skill and commitment. Liam Husband was the slightly standoffish Dr Richard Forth. Liam was suitably huffy and harassed as the village Doctor and was very convincing in his scenes with both Laura and Holly. John Williams made his acting debut as Eric Dawson. John had an almost dual role in the play and his sudden change in attitude was very effective. I hope to see him on stage again. As you can tell from my comments above, the casting was excellent. Mark Storton has assembled a cracking cast and crew and directed them all with his usual skill and attention to detail. His pacing of the piece was perfect, no moment was missed, no staging was awkward, his company all seemed well drilled and comfortable in the space. Well done. As I was leaving I heard somebody say that they wished they could see it again, and it was better than if it were on the telly! High praise indeed and I think summed up in two sentences the audience’s feelings. This was just tremendous theatre. Congratulations to all involved.
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