Medstead Players - 'Getting Along' - May 2013 Written by Charles Mander, by arrangement with Samuel French Ltd.
Directed by Graham Bennell
Henry and Helen are accompanied on their annual holiday in France by three widowed friends. Mistaking the directions to their gite the five turn up at accommodation that is sadly lacking. Henry, who always feels the victim is going through hell. He thinks Helen has jaunted off with John, the gite is surrounded by gunmen, Marcia is demented and Norman is rabid! In the end his faithful wife resolves the crisis bringing the hilarity to its moving conclusion.
[Anita Simpson]
As we settled into our seats, grouped convivially around tables with wine and nibbles, I noticed at the top of the hall a door marked ‘WC’ with a part-used loo roll hanging on string from the handle. Were the newly refurbished toilets out of action already? Was this the best they could do? No, I needn’t have worried. It was just the outside loo for the French gîte which this disparate group had booked for their holiday. Or was this their gîte? Could this scruffy accommodation possibly be the one they’d seen in the brochure?
Henry knew who to blame for all its shortcomings – his long-suffering wife Helen. He had become a grumpy old man long before his time. Norman, the real old man in the group knew how to have fun and so it seemed did Marcia, the object of his affections. However, presumably as a thoroughly modern woman, she found his marriage proposal quite a turn off.
At one point Henry’s ranting came perhaps a little bit too close to the realities of life for an audience expecting a night of comedic light relief but the mood soon passed and a comfortable happy ending ensued as they left the shed for the real gîte up the road.
All the players fulfilled their roles with gusto but Carol Bedingfield deserves particular praise for her exuberant portrayal of the highly strung Marcia.
[Jill Lake]
Cast:
Henry - David Rae
John - Stephen Forster
Norman - Stan Whitcher
Helen - Jane Parsons
Marcia - Carol Bedingfield
Previous Production - Following Production