Donkey’s Years Review by Elizabeth Sheldon |
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There were plenty of people going into the theatre and in fact, it seemed to be a full house, which is always a good sign. The atmosphere in the auditorium was lively and buzzing with expectation. Whilst waiting for the play to commence I saw that the stage was set with a very realistic facade depicting the front of a college building. It was just like the school building that my sons attended, Whitgift School in Croydon, so I felt quite at home and comforted by the vista. I perused the programme, which was unlike most programmes as it did not give a synopsis of the plot, but rather was set out like a college magazine with a notice board and news from 25years ago. Some of this was very amusing. The story involved a reunion of a college class from 25 years ago. They had gathered to a raise funds for a new building the college was planning. The old boys had various careers under their belts, some more illustrious than others and whilst the play build slowly it was with good dialogue, with some extremely funny quips exchanged between the characters. The story involved Lady Driver, the Masters’ wife who seemed to have had liaisons with most of the characters when they were at university 25years ago. She was hoping to meet with her lost love, who, in fact never appeared and a farce developed around her appearance in several of the characters rooms after dark. Lady Driver was superbly played by Sara Crowe, who was seen recently in Milton Keynes as Miss Babs in Acorn Antiques the musical. Sara acted her part with just the right amount of humour and her timing was excellent. The main male character was Chris Headlingley MP the Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Department of Education, was played by Mark Hadfield. Mark has an extensive theatre and TV history and I think, thoroughly enjoyed his role in this play as he was fabulous. The last few scenes where he had his trousers caught round his ankles and was dashing around the stage, were absolutely hilarious. Other characters worthy of mention were Ian Lavender as Sydney Birkett the long suffering porter of the college. Norman Pace (Hale and Pace) as Kenneth Snell research scientist and Patrick Ryecart as surgeon David Buckle. Everyone acted well; I could not fault any performance at all. The sets were excellent, authentic and interesting. I really enjoyed it and cannot recommend it more highly. by Elizabeth Sheldon |