Saturday 16 May 2009

Ladies Day

Through the torrential rain, I drove across to Lichfield on Friday night to see Ladies' Day, by Amanda Whittington.

Despite the miserable trip there, the play managed to lift the spirits of the rather bedraggled audience. Its distinctly northern humour hit the mark with the primarily middle aged audience. Some of the scene changes were clunky, to say the least - always the issue in studio spaces where there isn't the capacity for a curtain or any kind of meaningful blackout.

It struck me as being somewhat predictable in terms of structure... for the most part the first act stumbled along and then most of the second act was raced through as each character revealed their 'big secret' one after another. Amongst it there were certainly a couple of cringeworthy moments (I could have done without the ghostly apparition for one) and its setting is so intrinsically provincial that I can't imagine they could even dream of taking it to London but it was an enjoyable enough 2 hours with some very strong performances.

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