A TALE of two gardens in the kind of summer we should have had has got the Company of Ten's new season off to a popular start. The St Albans drama company always goes for a "bums-on-seats" play to start the season and choosing Richard Harris' Party Piece was an inspired selection.
With theAbbey Theatre full on Saturday night and a superb set in front of the audience, there was plenty to admire in a production which while not hilarious, was amusing enough to keep everyone's attention.
And Party Piece is certainly a play most people would identify with - who hasn't come across a crotchety and manipulative old lady, an obsessive neighbour and his put-upon wife or a flirty guest determined to put her stamp on anyone in trousers.
Director Brian Stewart chose not to put a fence between the two gardens where Michael and Roma were holding their barbecue and elderly Mrs Hinson was receiving a visit from her son.
So the actors had to mime the fence but it worked very effectively, particularly when Dianne Pickard's Jennifer dropped her hated mother-in-law's Zimmer frame into the neighbouring garden.
Margot Jobbins is superb as Mrs Hinson, owing not a little to Catherine Tate's Nan but without the swearing. She adores her spivvy son David, a fine performance from Lester J. Adams, but has nothing but contempt for his second wife Jennifer.
She plays her off against his first wife - never seen - until it transpires that she had no time for her either.
Dianne is a natural comedienne who milks the role for laughs and is particularly funny when she makes her feelings about her mother-in-law clear behind her back.
The scenes with the three of them in Mrs Hinson's garden are a delight and when the elderly termagant decides to go next door to her neighbour's barbecue, she is just as much of a hoot in their backyard.
Divyesh Thakerar as the obsessive Michael and Chloe Jane Dyson as his long-suffering wife Roma spend a lot of time running around and protecting the property from the handful of guests who arrive for the barbecue.
Divyesh, who struggled a bit with the comic timing, made a wonderful Ginger Rogers forever barking at his sweet-natured wife to remember her Fred Astaire hat.
Louise Edwards as the flirty Sandy, who thinks every man should fall at her feet, and Dale Hurley as the other guest Toby make up the cast.
MADELEINE BURTON
© Herts Advertiser 2008. Reproduced by permission