Author: Hazel Hole

This was the first time I had managed to see this small society perform in the Public Hall.

I was very warmly welcomed on arrival by Director, David Lye and had the chance to discuss the production with him.

This play has been over two years in gestation, due to COVID and the small and highly talented cast of four really oozed energy and enthusiasm. The publicity carried an “age” warning that it was not suitable for children due to it's sexual content and it was full of hilarious comedy punctured by innuendo, hints and role play.

The storyline centred around three elderly office cleaners who were to be made redundant. They decided to set up a sex chat line for their last weekend of working, to earn lots of cash for their retirement. !

Justine Smith took the lead role of Elsie, bouncing around the stage and indeed was rarely off stage. Her diction was very good and her actions and facial contortions were unbelievable and produced great hilarity. This was a huge role which Justine delivered eloquently with just the right amount of down to earth coarseness.

I enjoyed the character of Gladys, well played by Sheila Bolton. She changed from a rather dowdy, dull and humdrum housewife, very concerned about her husband finding out about the chat line to a slick and sexy star, intent on consuming vast quantities of wine. Sheila moved between the different sides to her character smoothly.

Olive, played by Jacqueline Walker was the instigator of the plot and encouraged the other two to fully participate. She was strident and raucous in the extreme.

The fourth character was the cleaners' supervisor Dave, played by Tony Carnall. Tony was rather evil and vicious in this role and extremely serious. However his antics with the vacuum cleaner were absolutely hilarious and caused great side splitting laughter both with the cleaning ladies and the audience.

Whilst there was a great deal of sexual innuendo and harmless but raucous humour it was presented in an engaging way and the audience found itself sympathetic to the plight of the cleaners. The sense of camaraderie between the three women was poignant and highly visible whilst each of them took delight in making jokes at each others' expense.

The set was constructed by the crew and was simple but perfectly adequate. The scenes all took place in an office with three desks and various pieces of equipment dotted around.

Costumes and sound were both relevant and adequate for the setting.

David Lye, the director, aided by producer Barry Carder did a great job of staging this production which was much appreciated and enjoyed by the audience, including myself.

Congratulations to David, for his vision in bringing this somewhat risque play to the stage and well done to the actors and everyone involved in any way.

It was pleasing to witness the return of this small but talented society.