Playing at Watford Palace Theatre from Tuesday 24th March-4th April
http://www.watfordtheatre.co.uk/p2.html

With interjected numbers from Gay's The Beggar's Opera, this play could have proved, for some, slightly taxing.  Although Gay's ballad opera was hailed as a masterpiece in his time (the 17th century), one would imagine that what was relevant then could not seemingly be so now.

Luckily, with only small interjections rather than full scale continuous singing,  Gay's songs are used not only as a means of highlighting the rehearsals for the performance that is being created within this play, but as a succinct plot developer for Ayckbourn's own play; using Gay's creation as a means of explaining the emotional whereabouts of Ayckbourn's characters.

What especially delighted me was the perfect display of, through, at times completely stereotyped characters, the idiosyncrasies and  bitchy claustrophobia of performance within an amateur dramatic society.  

Although this performance was engaging, at times I felt disappointed in Julian Harries' portrayal of Guy.  I cannot quite decipher why this was, but there were moments when I did not care about him at all and didn't at all believe that any of these women would find him attractive.  Sion Tudor Owen's Dafydd varied from blisteringly hilarious to slightly irritating and brash.  His huge voice constantly overpowering all others on the stage, it was, at times, a little too much.

However, there were some stellar performances from Katie Kerr as the fabulous Bridget and Katy Secombe as the vulnerable Hannah, her voice painfully emotive in song.   I was blown away by the accuracy and indeed poigniancy of Paul Leonard's portrayal of Jarvis and would like to see more of his work.

Overall, Peter Rowe directs a great production of Ayckbourn's play and it is well worth a visit.  Yet again The Palace is providing the goods and putting on plays that are just as good, if not better, than some of the shows that have made it to the West End