Review by Marilyn Barber

This theatre company gave local people a chance to enjoy a sociable evening in café style seating, whilst enjoying three one-act plays and a supper – or cream tea at the matinee – during an interval.

The plays were very different and gave three members the chance to direct for the first time.

Anger Management, directed by Hannah Tointon, gave four people attending a therapy session – Alan Dester, Suzanne Viney, Fiona Richards and Paul Stocker – the chance to put plenty of life and enthusiasm into their characters as they attended a session run by a doctor played by Val Smith.

Paul Senitt directed A Tale of Two Spectators – a clever little play in which a man, played by Chris Kemp and a woman (Sali Pike) secretly watch their respective spouses carry on an affair, after a while developing a bond.

The least well-known of the plays by Alan Ayckbourn, A Cut in the Rates featured a rate collector (Amanda Senitt) who visited the house of an illusionist (Colin Pile) to find out why he hadn’t been paying his bills. Enter the wife of the illusionist (Lesley James) who supposedly died seven years earlier and you have a nice little mystery.

The players hadn’t been able to stage this popular evening since 2019, so it was good to see its return.

And if you missed it, make a note in your diary that they are staging Nightmare, a suspense thriller by Harold Robbins from 22-26 November.