They have chosen The Lesson by Ionesco, a sinister story about what happens when a teenage pupil visits the home of a professor for private tutorage, and A Slight Accident by James Saunders, an hilarious expose of middle-class conventions at the heart of a drama.
The plays are very different and the Company of Ten has chosen to stage them the right way round in the Studio, with the longer and more surrealistic The Lesson on stage, first followed by the shorter and lighter A Slight Accident after the interval.
Both, in their way, are excellent and make spellbinding watching although I think it would be fair to say that the audience found The Lesson the most incomprehensible of the two.
Essentially a two-parter - although that is not to take away from Gill Stratford's capable performance as The Maid - The Lesson focuses on two characters, The Pupil and The Professor.
Tim Hoyle is at his finger-wagging best as The Professor whose behaviour disintegrates the longer he spends with his young pupil until the play reaches its shocking yet inevitable conclusion.
His madness reaches a pitch as he tries to explain the lesson of language to her and his incomprehensible ramblings stretch Tim's acting abilities to the maximum - a challenge which he meets remarkably well for an amateur production.
Emma Cunliffe as The Pupil is a joy. She captures the girl's decline from eager and smug pupil to pitiful victim very convincingly and her performance is riveting. The two of them have amazing rapport in their roles which must have made Jo Emery's job as director much easier than it might have been.
But in terms of enjoyment, A Slight Accident is the more successful play. It is quite absurd but in a far more comprehensible way than The Lesson and it is also very funny.
It is a one-trick pony in the sense that it centres on just one incident but excellent performances by the cast, especially Fenella Adams as Penelope, make it totally compelling.
Harriet Rowlands as Penelope's friend Camilla is a delight, particularly as it dawns on her what has been going on, and David Berryman as Rodger is the archetypal bore as he goes on and on about the importance of routine. Tim Hoyle appears once again as Harry but it is fair to say his role is nowhere near so demanding.
Val Male directs the second play in a thoroughly-entertaining evening but the production only runs until Saturday 7 June. Tickets can be obtained from the box office on 01727 857861.
MADELEINE BURTON
© Herts Advertiser 2007. Reproduced by permission