ACT Reviews 2022-2023 Season

Darcy Taylor as Ginnie, Eve Lomax as Carrie, Neel Vandanapu as George, and Siona Chaudhary as Sally also played their roles with confidence and charm, showing the development of Ginnie and George from William's bullies to his friends, and Carrie and Sally growing in confidence. All these young actors proved that the old adage, "never work with children or animals", is not always true! Joanne Shepherd as Mrs Fletcher brought such vibrancy and humour to the role with her perfect comic timing – the line, "My husband will!" particularly stood out and made me laugh out loud. Joanne also played Glad and the social worker, demonstrating her versatility. Eric Nolan as village busybody, Charlie Ruddles, also threw himself into his role, playing his character with an equal level of comedic skill. Neely Jillings did a great job of portraying the two very different characters of caring school teacher, Mrs Hartridge, and William's disturbed mother Mrs Beech – to her credit, if I had not seen in the programme that Neely played both roles I would not have realised. Equally, Paddy Darnell Walsh as mild-mannered pilot Mr Hartridge, and pompous psychiatrist Mr Stelton played these two distinct characters with aplomb. Anita Shaw as Miss Thorne the librarian exuded warmth and as the billeting officer, even though this was a tiny role, you still got the feeling that she really cared about her charges. Tony Lewis as Dr Little, Ben Ashworth as the Vicar and Clive Stack as Mr Miller and the ARP warden all had excellent stage presence and played their supporting roles with confidence. The smaller roles of the policeman, the ticket collector/ nurse and the ward Sister were ably played by Jonathan Mallinson, Claire St Pierre and Alison Smith respectively. Alison Bell's direction made for a fast-paced and confident production where all the actors seemed to have a good understanding of their characters, and the relationships between them were believable and moving. Everyone kept the pace up throughout and I did not notice anyone missing or fumbling over any lines, which is impressive, and, as I mentioned above, I really liked the use of the staging space. However, at times it felt as though there was no "space" between lines or actions for emotional expression. This meant that, as an audience member, there were times when I would have expected to feel emotionally connected