Holiday Snap

Stanford Hall Theatre - Wednesday 9th to Saturday 12th October 2002

A Farcical Comedy Written By Michael Pertwee & John Chapman

Directed By Chris Marlow & Sue Vickers

CHAOS REIGNING DOWN ON HOLIDAY

Now let's get this straight.

Henry is married to Maria but is here with Eve. Leslie is here with Celia whos's married to Sir Piers but Leslie is actually pretending to be Pedro who is married to Kit.

Alternatively, Pedro was once Eve but he's really Sir Piers and he's not here with Kit because he's married to Henry who isn't here with Maria but is here with Celia.

Confused? Then you will know exactly how poor old Commander Chittenden felt during the Falcon Player's excellent performance of John Chapman and Michael Pertwee's farce 'Holiday Snap' at a packed Stanford Hall last Thursday.

In a nutshell, the play revolves around one timeshare apartment, owned by Share-a-lux, that has been double-booked by the eccentric Chittenden to two different parties. Unmarried couple Leslie (Peter E Legg) and Eve (Yvonne Marshall) are the first to arrive but their number seems to be up when Charlesworth's Henry (Steve Shipton) and Mary (Liz Cox) turn up and claim supremacy over the apartment because they booked first.

However, things get fouled up for Henry when his mother-in-law Celia (Laraine Gibson) drops in unexpectedly forcing Henry to admit he's not actually married to Mary at all but is Kit (Roxie Cross) and we engage in an elaborate game of bluff involving golf, two absent domestic staff in Pedro and Maria, some Hungarian and Sir Piers (Brian Binns). It sounds and was, wonderfully chaotic, and it was extremely funny in places with all the cast on top form.

But in the middle of it all was the barmy Chittenden wonderfully played by Stuart Bailey who had the audience eating out of his hand. Chitto is the Share-a-lux representative who could not run a bath, never mind this side of the operation, because of his extreme fondness for a drink and the more complicated and strange things got the more old Chitto struggled to keep up, much to everyone's delight. Bailey played him brilliantly, and believe m, if you'd found yourself in a situation like his, you'd turn to drink too. Mines a pint Chitto.

John Smith - Loughborough Echo, 18/10/02