The March Production
"Summer End" by Eric Chapell.
Directed by Tracey Walton.
Cast
Cynthia Pollard
as..Emily
Norma Davies
as..May
Clare Evans
as..Mrs Lang
Rebecca Down
as..Sally
Michael Dickerson
as..Alan
Review
Summer End
Neath Little Theatre, Westernmoor Road, Neath
Tuesday(March 7)
The players of Neath Little Theatre can always be relied upon to try their hand at something different, and for this latest production director Tracey Walton and a five-strong cast are revisiting the work of writer Eric Chappell, perhaps best known as the creator of Rising Damp, whose play Haywire provided NLT with one of its most popular crowd-pullers a little while back.
What begins as a seemingly conventional comedy set in a nursing home called Summer End takes a darker turn when Emily(played by NLT favourite Cynthia Pollard)informs her roommate May(Norma Davies)that a former inmate did not die of natural causes but was in fact murdered.
But will anyone believe the old lady, or will her penchant for stretching the truth prove to be her undoing? All is not quite as it seems in this intriguing play peppered with witty one-liners and
offering the performers plenty of scope for their talents.
Chappell's distinctive dialogue includes his trademark gimmick of having characters relate funny incidents that have happened in retrospect, as in an account of an old lady who finds herself stuck to a toilet seat with superglue, and surreal phrases which make a crazy kind of sense if you think about them long enough ("That's my trouble," says Emily, "I'm bored to death but I can't stand the excitement").
Clare Evans(Mrs Lang), Rebecca Down(Sally)and Michael Dickerson (Alan)complete the cast in this nicely staged comic thriller which should hopefully attract large audiences before the end of its run on Saturday.
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