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| The Company of Ten's When We Are Married |
A COMIC masterpiece is currently wowing capacity audiences at the Abbey Theatre - and the Company of Ten richly deserve a full house every night.
When We Are Married by J.B. Priestley was always going to prove a popular choice of play for the St Albans drama group and director David Stone and his team do not disappoint.
From the moment the curtain goes up on one of those Company of Ten sets which draws spontaneous applause from the audience, it is laughter all the way.
The story of the three couples who are celebrating their Silver Wedding anniversary on the same day is a classic. It is set in the Edwardian era but its take on pomposity, selfishness and the role of women is in many ways as pertinent today as when it was first written.
While it has a moral stance which could prevent it being set successfully in the present day, it does not feel dated like so many plays of its era, probably because it has a range of characters whom everyone has met at some time and can identify with.
Take the self-important, egocentric Cllr Albert Parker, played with just the right amount of pomposity by Derek Coe, and his put-upon wife Annie, a perfectly contrasting performance from Diane Clark.
When the worm turns, everyone in the audience is delighted and rightly so, just as they are when the henpecked Herbert Soppitt, a wonderfully-bewhiskered Alan Herring, turns on his domineering wife Clara - a lovely performance from Fiona Davidson - and puts her firmly in her place.
The slightly more balanced relationship between the perfectly-matched Suzie Major and Tony Bradburn as Maria and Alderman Joseph Helliwell is the perfect foil for the other two couples - but there is a sting in the tail in the shape of the magnificent Lottie Grady, played by Julie Grant.
Russell Vincent is well cast as the organist and choirmaster Gerald Forbes who really puts the cat among the pigeons but the comic performance of the production comes from Mike Andrews as the bibulous press photographer Henry Ormanroyd.
Portraying a drunk on stage is really difficult and he is both convincing and very funny in a well-observed performance which brings the house down.
When We Are Married is one of those excellent all-round productions which the Company of Ten produces from time to time and which acts as a benchmark for quality.
Tickets have rightly been flying out of the box office but if there are any remaining before the end of the run on Saturday, call 01727 857861 to find out.
MADELEINE BURTON
© Herts Advertiser 2006. Reproduced by permission