The Grange Players
Presents
See How They Run
By Philip King
13th January - 23rd January 2016
See How They Run is a Farce first performed in 1944 to entertain the troops and made its West End debut in 1945. It was later made into a film in 1955.
It was set shortly after the Second World War in the sleepy village Merton-cum-Middlewick at the Vicarage of Mr and Mrs Toop. The story is one of miss identities, miss understandings and missing uniforms!
The set had a lovely feel of homeliness with warm, rustic colours and plenty of doors for cast members to race in and out of. The lighting brought the room to life with wall lights casting shadows, drawing you into the living room and you could almost feel the warmth coming from the fireplace.
The costumes were authentic to the period and all blend nicely with the surroundings.
The staging of this piece reflected the dialogue - fast paced, lively and joyfully charming. There was great light and shade and the comedy was elegantly and perfectly delivered.
Suzy Donnelly played the ex professional actress Penelope Toop who is married to the Vicar Lionel (David Weller). She gave a striking performance and her eyes told a thousand words. When her old acting parter Clive (Rod Blisset) appears in the Village, Penelope's fun loving nature came to the forefront and the scene was set for a very entertaining evening!
David Weller as Lionel was the perfect Village Vicar. His soft approach was in contrast to his enthusiastic, full of life wife. His unfortunate encounter with an escaped German prisoner (Les Wilkes) brought his calm nature into question as he raced around the house in his underwear brandishing a metal poker.
Rob Blisset was a 'full of life' Clive, who was convinced by Penelope to take off his army uniform and wear her husbands clothes to go to a local theatre production of 'Private Lives' which they had performed in a few years earlier.
Liz Webster was the local gossip and dedicated church goer Miss Skillion. A drop of alcohol had never passed her lips until that night when a scene she had witnesses made her turn to the cooking sherry! After that she was no longer the stuffy lady disgruntled at Penelope decorating of the pulpit but a full of life, legs everywhere drunk who had to be put into a cupboard to keep her out of the way!
Rob Onions was the bumbling Humphrey's who had come to the Village to take the Sunday Service but ended up being embroiled into the evenings goings on. His one liners were wonderfully delivered and made the audience chuckle out load.
Andy Jones played Penelope's Uncle, the Bishop who arrived to stay with the couple that evening. His placid nature soon turned into bewilderment and it was extremely comical seeing his transformation.
Lorraine Samantha Allen portrayed her part of Maid Ida with charm. Her rolling of the eyes and little asides were perfectly undertaken. She was the downtrodden maid that had an eye for the men and she really got under the skin of the character and allowed the audience to empathise with her in her failed attempts to stop the misunderstandings from taking place.
The confusion was all ironed out at the end by Chris Walters as Sergeant Towers.
This is a well written play that was stylishly performed by The Grange Players.
The show runs until 23rd January 2016.
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