LGP Dinner Theatre evenings

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click LGP Dinner Theatre evenings in the Village Hall.

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Reviews below for :- Nov.1955 A Fete Worse than Death; Nov.1995 Confusions; February 1996 The Gut Girls; March 1997 A Fish Called Dick;

1954 LGP Dinner Theatre. 'A Fete Worse than Death'

The title was on the programme, it would not be mine. We expect a good evening from any L.G.P. entertainment and we were not disappointed. Last year's Supper Theatre was on one evening only and crowded to capacity; this year we had two evenings and it was still a "sell-out". With a different arrangement of tables and the main courses served from a buffet, we were asked table by table to go up and make our selection, with the younger L.G.P. members only serving the first course and collecting the plates etc. This worked very well as far as I could see taking tables in order and reversing that for the next course was a fair and sensible way of ensuring that people did not have to wait too long either at table or at the buffet. The bar was available well before the first course of dips and crudités, after which we had the first part of the entertainment: “The Lily the Pink Singers" - a short play set in L.G. Village Hall one wet evening, based on "The Spring Song Singers” by Richard Tydeman. I could not see who had written the descriptions of the actors/characters in the programme but they were very funny and worth reading. Peter Brookhouse directed the play, which made an amusing opening to the entertainment. Relating it to our village hall and thinking, perhaps, of the local choir added to the situation and if the characters were an exaggeration on real life, we could probably fit them, Loosley, to people we know certainly they seemed to suit ‘the players. That really means they entered into their parts completely. Without singling out each actor, I must say that I enjoyed Helen Titchen as the accompanist and feel she will be missed when she leaves the village shortly, temporarily we hope.

After enjoying my choice from the buffet selection of Hot Tuna and Prawn bake, Coronation Chicken, savoury flans and ham, with salad and jacket potatoes, it was relaxing to listen to "Glad to be Grey", a musical interlude of madrigals and arrangements of what was termed “rustic music" for four voices. These were very well performed, indicating much skill and rehearsal and | think the applause spoke for the enjoyment the music gave.

"Gosforth's Féte" by Alan Ayckbourn, was the final offering when we had eaten our delicious sweets. It had a small cast: Ann-Noel Clark was Milly Carter, an earnest, not so young school teacher in charge of teas, engaged to Stuart Stokes (Ray Gosling), a stolid, convential scout/cub leader, with his baggy shorts and old-fashioned scout hat set squarely on his head. Chris Tyrer was the "caricature" Vicar we all enjoy seeing in farces - "over the top" but playing the part with gusto, misquoting the bible and rushing round, although not exactly helping the situation. Rob Lenko was Gordon Gosforth, féte organiser, debonair village Lothario, not turning out as efficient as he would like to be but trying to prevent the disaster which threatened as so much started to go wrong. Then there was Emma Pearce, the local councillor, played by Madeleine Tate, coming to open the féte and making lame excuses for her absent husband. There would not be a play if everything went swimmingly and it didn't. The cubs would climb up the scaffolding not strong enough to take them, the sound equipment unaccountably did not work, the thunderstorm eventually broke. Naturally, when the sound equipment did begin to work, it was not noticed by our charming organiser and his most intimate conversation with Milly Carter was broadcast over the field, so that her fiancé rushed in to reproach her, then took to drinking the prize sherry to drown his sorrow, making him rather belligerent. The Vicar rushed into remonstrate, then tried to help pour tea from the urn, found he could not turn off the tap and finished up frantically holding cups under and emptying them back into the urn, while all sorts of other things were going on. Emma Pearce, with exquisite expressions, had been very patronising and condescending when she first arrived but after being encouraged to walk round the field before officially opening the fete and being caught in the thunderstorm, she turned up during the chaos covered in mud and with her fancy hat all askew. It only needed the scaffolding down the other end of the field to collapse and the electric equipment to explode, with a bang and much smoke, to complete the disaster.

It was so perfectly timed and so realistically awful but exceedingly funny and | know that took not only very good directing and acting but also wonderful behind-the-scenes organisation and sound and lighting effects. The play could not be faulted in that, it was really excellent and I have not laughed so much for a long time.

Congratulations to the director, Brian Panter, and to all the cast and backstage workers, particularly Mike and Chris.

Rachel Panter organised the meal and some of her assistants were with her in the first play, a very good effort in both undertakings.

Hallmark November 1995. 'Confusions' Reviewed by Madeline Cleaver

The hilarious "“Gosforth's Fete", LGP's previous dinner theatre main play, was the last in a group of short plays written by Alan Ayckbourn and the four others made up the programme for Saturday and Sunday 25/26^th November. Having very much enjoyed the dinner theatre in March, we went to the second evening when there was a light supper served by the very helpful younger members of the company.

The first play, directed by Brian Panter, "Mother Figure", featured Alison Stacey as Lucy, child-orientated, bossy, no-interest-outside-the-home mother whose home displayed the evidence with soft toys all around, nappies cascading out of laundry bag – she obviously did not use that powder which gets things really clean! Lucy doesn't like bells, doesn't answer telephone or door and cannot recognise her neighbour, who calls to see if anything is wrong as Harry, Lucy's husband, has been trying to contact her for so long he has asked Rosemary (Ann Long) to check and to give Lucy his number while he is away on business. The children are evidently in bed but still need drinks, reprimands and so on and Lucy is prepared to supply the same to her neighbours, Rosemary and her husband Terry (Ray Gosling), particularly when they start arguing like children, under Lucy's’ influence and treatment. It was very amusing and, while exaggerated, was an almost believable life situation – we could see what was coming. The play finished with Harry, just off, complaining to the operator for not checking the line to see why there is no answer to his calls, after we have seen Lucy lift and replace the receiver at least twice.

"Drinking Companions" shows us Harry (Peter Brookhouse) in the bar at The Crown, chatting up a most attractive young woman, Paula (Katy Brookhouse) and plying her with drinks, while he boasts of the superior room he has and attempts to persuade her to go and see it. While Paula can obviously see through him, she seems reluctant to break away but Bernice, her friend seems to be made of sterner stuff when she arrives. She accepts a drink but is less inclined to humour Harry who, by now, is rather inebriated – the many drinks served by the suave, efficient waiter (Rob Lenko, who also directed) were rather large ones. Harry presses the key of his room into Paula's hand but Bernice insists on leaving while he is out of the way attempting to telephone his wife again and complaining to the operator, as we saw at the end of the first play.

Elsewhere at The Crown in “Between Mouthfuls", the waitress (Ann-Noel Clark) is checking her tables when Donald Pearce arrives to claim the table for two he has reserved. Peter Lawrence plays the short-tempered, short-fused, short-on-charm business man who is meeting the wife Emma for a meal out on his return from a trip to Rome. These two unpleasant people seem to deserve each other as they argue their way through choosing from the menu and discussing the trip. We met Emma, Madeline Tate, when she arrived too early to open Gosforth's Fete and finished up soaked with hat awry, attracting a little sympathy then. However, from when she swept in and lit the first of several cigarettes while the meal was being ordered and served, through her fury at discovering Donald was with a woman in Rome, we could enjoy disliking her. While they are absorbed in their conflict, Polly and Martin Chalmers (Rachel Panter and James Moorcroft) arrive and take a table nearby after Polly fails to persuade Martin to go elsewhere when she sees the occupants of the other table. These two are also meeting for a meal out after Polly's return form abroad – on her own because Martin was too busy to go. Polly, too, went to Rome and all is not smooth in this couple's relationship either, Martin appearing to be an overworked, patronising bore. The poor waitress does her best to cope with all their outbursts, between trying to take orders and serve meals and wine. Luckily, we can follow it all at the same time as sound is "switched off" on one couple, alternately, as the other is heard. This was achieved by the actors themselves, without benefit of microphones, and was most effective. We eventually found that Donald was in Rome with Polly, if we hadn't guessed. Peter Brookhouse directed.

Rob Lenko also directed “A Talk in the Park" which had Peter Lawrence as Arthur, Katy Brookhouse, Beryl, Ray Gosling, Charles, Diana Ronianski, Doreen and Rob Lenko Earnest (was that intended, the "a’?) sitting on benches trying to enjoy the birdsong and tranquillity. First Arthur, looking and sounding very much like a Peter Cooke character, annoys Beryl with boring talk of his life and his cigarette card collection so that she moves to another bench to complain and upset Charles with details of her violent boyfriend's letter. Charles then walks over to grumble to Doreen, a very nervous character with the appearance of a “bag lady", who goes to wake up Earnest, who is dozing, and chat about her problems so that he escapes to Arthur, explaining his need of peace and quiet after the noise of a screaming child at home. This was an amusing and interesting play but rather too pathetically real to be very funny, convincingly put over.

The characters were well cast in all the plays and the excellence of performance owed much to both actors and directors, I am sure; there seems no reason to mention anyone in particular, congratulations to all. The invaluable services of Chris Saxton and Mike Robbins were once again evident in this production.

Hallmark February 1996. LGP Dinner Theatre. 'The Gut Girls' Reporter Sarah Daniels

Although there were almost equal numbers of adult and younger members of LGP in this play, the action was really about young people doing unpleasant work and with their reactions with their superiors in the conditions and prejudices of the time – the turn of the century. Within the confines of what is possible in a simple production like this, with 11 different locations in Deptford London, to be represented and the limitations of time, it is a very busy play which needs concentration to keep up with the story. However, the cast coped with the problem in an admirable way and the feeling of the time, the work and its problems came over. The language was startling at first, despite the warning but, of course, it was as if would have been. Once that and the characters were accepted, rather than our nice young people, one realises it is telling the story as it was. I have read stories of the hard lives of people in such circumstances and although there is a portrayal of their camaraderie, their accents and dialects in some cases, there is not usually the true vulgarity and honestness which would have been there in real life. One might imagine such language was not used, rudeness of a sort, yes, but not the frank vulgarity we heard here.

There is comedy and sadness in the story, as would be expected. Girls doing an unpleasant job which not many other desperate people would take on, have to look out for each other. Few other people would be interested in them, they were looked upon with disdain even by their peers. Even so, they are not secure and with the background they have, there is only one step lower if they lose their jobs, which they do, and they just have to accept the help of the condescending but kind Lady Helena who is prepared to train and place them as servants. Those who cannot or will not re-train have a poor outlook, while the girl who had ideas of forming a trade union had no chance of succeeding. You could say there was a reasonable resolution of the problem but it leaves food for thought beyond the entertainment value, which was certainly there.

We are used to good performances from adults and younger people in LGP but new faces among the young actors gave excellent performances which might have surprised, knowing that they had perhaps not had the experience some regular members had, but that means they have talent and that the direction was very good. For young people to speak some of the lines in front of their contemporaries not only took nerve but real maturity because they did it so naturally. I feel I either have to mention everyone or no one and in a talented cast acting so well there were so few weaknesses I would rather congratulate all actors, director and all the background people.

One thing I do have to mention; the "pig" which was carried in for “gutting” was made by Brian Panter – a work of art, and carried in by Aiden Piercy as if it was the true weight of a pig carcass (complete, remember). Rachel Panter catered for refreshments, delicious of course, with her able helpers.

Hallmark May 1997. A Fish Called Dick! report by Madeline Cleaver

Another event of good food and entertainment in friendly company was enjoyed by all who attended the performance of three short plays on either of two evenings with dinner, or matinee with light refreshments, during the weekend of 21st, 22nd March. The Twinning Association had joined with Lacey Green Productions to help with this function, the first of many fund-raising ventures to benefit both organisations and the Village Hall re-building programme. Judging by the numbers and enjoyment expressed it was very successful.

As with earlier dinner theatre, we all enjoyed a starter before the first play. On Saturday this was a very good salmon and parsley soup, with roll and butter, before watching “A Fishy Business” where the central theme was all to do with the eating – or not – of salmon. It was well acted by a familiar cast, augmented by a newcomer who proved he is an experienced actor. Produced by Rob Lenko, who played the uncle who boasted of – catching the salmon which caused all the fuss. I must say that, while well cast, with each part acted completely naturally, just the appearance of ‘uncle’ and ‘nephew made one think the roles should have been reversed.

The main course of chicken breast in a filo-pastry parcel, with vegetables, followed – really delicious – and | was eventually able to organise my seat so as to be able to watch the next play properly. Just three actors carried the action in ‘Mill Hill’ by John Mortimer, produced by Brian Panter, and they were very convincing even if the ideas were rather eccentric to the ‘normal, straight audience (?), which is where the humour came in.

After choosing from a variety of sweets, we – were ready for the re-appearance of the famous Scratchis Bottom Operatic and Dramatic Society (SODS) whose members made their debut in Lacey Green two or three years ago – well we needed some sweetening up to prepare Us. The programme notes said “We remember with fondness their last performance at Lacey Green” - well we remember it but it was unfortunately not the last, seemingly. Nevertheless we have to say they are getting better all the time (yes, we have to, or it might be dodgy salmon or curtains for us). Why, if they go on improving at the rate they are, by Millennium they might have reached the giddy heights of – well, Class 4 of the local school. We should all encourage these great actors, the SODS. I, for one, am encouraging every one of them when | have the opportunity, by telling them of the delights of living in Milton Keynes, what possibilities there are there for aspiring actors. As for the people backstage, what fortitude, what ingenuity, my admiration knows no bounds.

How did Rachel manage to be in two plays with all the effort of producing such an excellent meal? She had help, no doubt, some of those folk were also in plays but hers the main credit for the catering. The food came piping hot, brought by the young people of LGP who quickly and quietly served, cleared away and made themselves unobtrusive. There was much work by others, including some of the audience, producing the meal on the other evening and the matinee, adding to the enjoyment of the entertainment.