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Stars explained: * A production of no real merit
with failings in all areas. ** A production showing evidence of not
enough time or effort, or even talent, and which never breathes any real
life into the piece – or a show lumbered with a terrible script. *** A
good enjoyable show which might have some small flaws but has largely
achieved what it set out to do.**** An excellent show which shows a
great deal of work and stage craft with no noticeable or major
flaws.***** A four star show which has found that extra bit of magic
which lifts theatre to another plane. |
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Deep end turns out a bit shallow
Helen Lammas
(Sandra, left) and Poppy Cooksey-Heyfron (Linda) provide glamour and fun
in In at the Deep End. In at the Deep End Swan Theatre Amateur Company
Swan Theatre, *** THE company of
six works hard to good effect, to give Derek Benfield's comedy an uplift
that it badly needs but scarcely deserves. There are many funnier offerings to be had than
this one, which is set in a health farm where the highly moral manager
finds he is suddenly presiding over an unexpectedly naughty emporium, in
which, as he tells us from time to time, the pillars of morality
are starting to tremble. Amid all the comings and goings, the most amusing
line for my money turned out to be, “Is that what you're doing –
permeating?” Too improbable to explain, but it just tickled my
funny-bone. Martin Davis, as Gerald, the man who has turned
up to recharge his batteries, had the misfortune to be troubled by a
cold on the first night and this did not help his delivery on occasions
– but he keeps the requisite straight face and delivers the necessary
desperate lies when his wife turns up unexpectedly and finds that he has
got his winsome secretary for company. She is the simpering Sandra, appealingly played by Helen Lammas and mistaken in the course of the action for the chambermaid who is a secret drinker. She must surely have overheard something she was
not supposed to hear on the first night, when the bathroom door failed
to close behind her before the manager and Gerald began having a
conversation that was supposed to be private
in the room outside. SEX-SEEKING VISITORS The manager – Mr Potter – is Christopher
Kingsley, understandably prone to stress in the face of some of his
sex-seeking visitors, such as the ever-eager and appealingly chirruping
Sandra, who was greeted on the first night by wolf whistles. In this, she was not alone. Poppy Cooksey-Heyfron,
as Linda, Gerald's daughter, attracted similar acclaim when she made her
first appearance in a swimsuit that was far from large economy size. She
later seemed to doubt the ability of her filmy white dress to stay where
it was supposed to stay – but she succeeded in preventing its progress
southwards, thus forestalling even more acclaim from the auditorium. Anne Crowther is Marion, wife of Gerald, who
greets her unexpected arrival with understandable consternation, as a
prelude to her determined romp on the bed with Rodney (James Bacon), the
young man whose presence is not apt to go unnoticed by the fair sex. But this is not a rib-tickler. The cup of good
cheer never threatens to overflow, despite the determined and deserving
company that graces Andrew Dunkley's production on a clean-cut set that
presents the sparsest of spas. To 23-07-11. John Slim |
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