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Theatre Reviews

Murder Assured - St Ann's Players

Earlier this month, St Ann’s Players presented the thriller ‘Murder Assured’, at St Ann's Parish Hall on Brocklebank Road.

Director Judith Mansfield gathered together a strong cast for this thrilling production.

The plot revolves around Stephen Ryder, a previously successful writer who, when he hits bad times, decides to auction a £500,000 insurance policy. This presents his wife, Sheila, with the opportunity to cash in by plotting Stephen’s death, with friend of the family Gordon Crawford.

Date published: 28/10/2008

Don't Dress For Dinner

Errant husband Bernard, played with great skill by Ian Mansfield sees a wonderful opportunity for a weekend of passion with his mistress Suzanne when his wife decides to visit her mother.
He hires a cook, invites his best friend Robert as cover, and can't wait to pack his wife off, rubbing his hands with glee at the prospect of the hanky-panky to come.
However, unbeknown...

Date published: 18/06/2008

Funny Money

Barbara Fielden directed Ray Cooney’s masterpiece ‘Funny Money’ creating a laugh-a-minute show. If you are unfamiliar with the story it features Henry, a run of the mill office worker, who mistakenly picks up a briefcase containing £735,000 instead of his own briefcase containing a cheese sandwich. He tries to persuade wife Jean that she should shun friends Vic and Betty for a...

Date published: 12/06/2008

Charley's Aunt

The story line of Thomas’s enduring farce, like most farces, is easy to follow. Two Oxford student friends Jack Chesney (Bernie Culshaw) and Charles Wykeham (Geoff Williams) are smitten by two young ladies, Kitty Verdun (Marie Hynes) and Amy Spettigue (Ellie Reader) but can’t spend time alone with the girls unless there is a female chaperone present (this is 1905!).
...

Date published: 12/06/2008

Take My Husband Please

St Ann's Players' Spring production was the comedy "Take My Husbands Please" by Terry Harper. The audience were introduced to a madcap morning in the life of best selling novelist India Kershaw played with great conviction by Judith Mansfield. ...

Date published: 12/06/2008

I'll Be Back Before Midnight

St Ann’s Players latest production I’ll be back before Midnight by Peter Colley proved to be an edge of the seat thriller that kept the large audience guessing throughout...

Date published: 12/06/2008

Run For Your Wife

St Ann's Players latest production Run For Your Wife by Ray Cooney was just the ticket on a cold February night. The superb cast had the audience in stitches with their consistently brilliant performances and high energy. The story centres on taxi driver John Smith who has two wives, Mary and Barbara striving to keep the existence of each wife from the other, John lives in...

Date published: 12/06/2008

The Opposite Sex

This late Summer production by MAD Theatre Company is a side-splitting adult comedy staged at Milnrow Parish School.
The Opposite Sex, by David Tristram, revolves around the pasts of couples Mark and Vicky and Judith and Eric which come crashing back to haunt them. It soon transpires that Mark, played by Bernie Culshaw, and Judith, played by Kath Stone, share a past when...

Date published: 12/06/2008

Lord Arthur Saviles Crime

In over thirty years of theatre going, I have never seen a production of Oscar Wilde¹s Lord Arthur Savile¹s Crime. When I left this opening night production by The Mad Theatre Company I did not leave disappointed. The plot revolves around Septimus Podgers, a professional palmist, who reads Lord Arthur Savile¹s hand and sees murder written across his palm. Arthur, about to...

Date published: 12/06/2008

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is arguably the best known fairy tale ever,so the audience at MADS latest production waited with eager anticipation for what was to come. They did not leave disappointed having experienced an enchanting production of this popular tale. ...

Date published: 12/06/2008

Beauty and the Beast

The friends of St Gabriels have this year presented the classic tale of Beauty and the Beast as their annual pantomime. The story follows the transformation of Prince Wilhelm (Jackie Barlow) into a hideous beast by Scorpio (Pat Majerski). ...

Date published: 12/06/2008

It Runs in the Familty

The St Annes players production of Ray Cooney's farce "It Runs in the Family" is set in the doctors' common room of St. Andrews Hospital. It's 10:45 a.m., three days before Christmas. Dr. David Mortimore (played by Ian Mansfield) sits polishing the most important speech of his life – a speech he will deliver at noon before 200 distinguished colleagues, a speech which will...

Date published: 12/06/2008

Aladdin

The Annual Pantomime at the Gracie Fields Theatre has gone from strength to strength with each passing year and this years production of Aladdin is yet another triumph. ...

Date published: 12/06/2008

Sweet Revenge

St Annes Players had the audience at the Parish Hall gripped on the edge of their seats for this production of SWEET REVENGE by Francis Durbridge. Like all good thrillers this one had a complex plot, which the strong company handled with great skill. ...

Date published: 12/06/2008

Cash on Delivery

This Michael Cooney farce has all the ingredients for a rip-roaring, gut-busting evening and that is just what is provided by the MAD cast in this excellent production. ...

Date published: 12/06/2008

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