​Much Hadham Drama Group

Much Hadham Drama Group - Flare Path

Director – Sue Clarke

Performed at Much Hadham Village Hall on 10/11/23 at 8pm

 

This was my first visit to watch Much Hadham Drama Group. We were met by the friendly front of house team and then showed to our seats by Director Sue Clarke.

What struck me immediately when we entered the hall was the wonderful set. The entire play takes place in the lounge of the Falcon Hotel during WW2 so it was essential that the set depicted that era. It certainly did, clearly cast and creative worked incredibly hard and the attention to detail was evident. Really well done to all involved with a special mention to Jem Deans for his design.

There were some stand out performances in this production and I must start with Lisa Turpcu as Doris, the unlikely Countess. This role calls for a skilled Actress who can not only make the audience laugh but also portray strength and sorrow. Lisa achieved all of this and more. Jem Deans as her husband the Count gave the audience lots of laughs with his Polish accent and bumbling attempts to master the English language.

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Ollie Robinson as Lieutenant Teddy Graham and Megan Rensch as his actress wife Patricia are central to the story. Their acting was first rate and they really made the audience feel like it was War time 1942. There was a lovely moment when Teddy finally comes clean to his wife, shaking off his usual bravado to tell her he is frightened of flying. Both gave excellent emotional performances in this scene.

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Every Player in this production should be extremely proud of their performance. There were no dropped lines, the dialogue flowed at an excellent pace and there was certainly a lot of it to remember! Paul Long as movie star Peter Kyle in particular had some tricky dialogue to master. Tom Livesey gave a suitably “jack the lad” performance as Seargent Dusty Miller and was well supported by Vanessa Templey as his feisty wife Maudie and Sue Wetherall gave us a very frosty Mrs Oakes the hotel owner. Ralph Camp gave a nice performance as the Squadron Leader looking after everyone, very watchable and young Sebastian Webb gave a sweet performance as Percy, I particularly liked his scenes with the Countess.

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Sound and lighting were just right, I could hear every word and the raid scene at the end of Act 1 during a blackout was excellent. Costumes were good on the whole and in keeping with the era.

Director Sue Clarke must be commended on a slick production beautifully timed for Remembrance weekend.

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I am so pleased I was able to see Flare Path. My guest and I had a lovely evening as did the rest of the audience. I hope to see you all at future productions

Victoria Carey

District 7

NODA East