How well do you know your work colleagues? Really? A question Ladies Day by Amanda Whittington leaves you asking.
Soon to retire Pearl has never been to the races and uses her savings to take herself and her work colleagues to Royal Ascot. As the champagne flows and the girls meet an eclectic mix of characters, from a sleazy TV celebrity to a jockey and Pearl’s male ‘friend’ it becomes clear things are not quite as they at first appeared.
The play sets the everyday camaraderie of a fish filleting production line in juxtaposition to the personal revelations a boozy afternoon at the races reveals. The characters individual stories ranging from a saucy long term affair to serious debt problems and undeclared love expose the reality of fractured lives. Yet through the struggles, fallouts and revelations, at the core of the play, is the story of female bonding.
Penicuik Community Theatre Groups performance of Ladies Day was ambitious. Initial nerves and a peppering of forgotten lines soon relaxed into believable performances. The opening scene, while laced with humour, built a believable picture of the women’s everyday working life and also established a strong camaraderie between the individual characters.
Debi Hamilton, who played brash WAG wannabe Shelley, brought life to the characters sardonic wit with a powerful stand out performance. Jan’s drunken revelations were delivered with passion and feeling by Lucy Douglas whose effortless and natural performance was absorbing. The lively double act between Shelley and Jan flowed with a comic timing that invoked hilarious laugh out loud moments.
The uncomplicated set was simple but effective and worked well in transporting the audience from one scene to the next. Some ropey scene changes, although disrupting to the flow, failed to detract significantly from the performance.
The humour although sometimes feeling a little clichéd delivered some good one liners interspersed with a touch of slapstick. Overall the performance was very entertaining and certainly had a feel good factor.
The Verdict
3.5/5
Penicuik Community Theatre’s next production will be the family panto Dick Whittington, which will run from 5th – 7th December.
New Members are always welcome, either to help front of house, backstage, in PR or media or with costumes and make up. If you are interested you can go along to their regular rehearsal and meeting place, the Town Hall on Thursdays at 7.30 pm or get in touch via email: