NODA Review of Present Laughter
Much Hadham Drama Group “Present Laughter” Directed by Mike Carver
Reviewed at Much Hadham Village Hall on Friday 12th November 2021
Matinee idol Garry Essendine is preparing to go on tour to Africa. According to his wife, who lives separately from her philandering husband, he is getting too old to still be having affairs. However, before he manages to get away his past starts to catch up with him and towards the end things become rather chaotic.
This is a long and very wordy play which could so easily have lost the attention of the audience. Fortunately there was no fear of this happening here. The Director had put together a strong cast who kept things moving at a good pace
Connor Hughes was excellent as Garry, a role originally played by Noel Coward and which calls for the actor to be on stage most of the time. His long suffering ex, although he confesses they never actually got around to getting divorced, was superbly played by Lisa Turpcu.
I enjoyed Rachel Leung’s characterisation of Monica Reed, Garry’s completely unflappable secretary. She’s seen and heard it all and is completely unfazed when yet another of his admirers, a young Daphne Stillington, nicely played by Juliet Richards, is found wandering around the house wearing a pair of Garry’s silk pyjamas. The explanation of sleeping in the spare room due to a lost latchkey is one with which Monica is very familiar.
Well done to Lorna Catt who, as well as being in charge of Props, stepped in to play housekeeper Miss Erikson, a rather languid character, usually seen with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth,
There were good performances from Mark Edwards as Fred, the ships steward turned butler, suitably attired and going about his duties in a brisk efficient manner, and from Paul Haimes and Jem Deans as Henry and Morris. These two characters would of course have arrived wearing hats and maybe it would have added to the authenticity had we seen some evidence of this. We must assume therefore that they were left in the hall.
Margaret Stainton was the rather glamorous Joanna. This was a nice performance but such a shame her dialogue was lost on occasions, due to her projection not being quite strong enough.
Darrell Williams looked as though he was really enjoying playing the rather absurd aspiring playwright Roland Maule. A very believable performance from this versatile actor.
The open stage was very well dressed with a lot of attention being given to detail, as I have come to expect from this society.
Costumes were, on the whole, representative of the period although the eagle eyed would have spotted one or two gentlemen wearing modern pointy toed shoes. Cigarettes are now of course out of fashion but I feel I must mention that back in the day and in polite company, visitors would have been invited to take a cigarette from the box, not handed one which I did see happen here. My apologies if this was scripted.
This was an otherwise very good, well directed production.
Thank you for inviting me, we had a thoroughly enjoyable evening.
Decia Ranger
NODA East, District