Touch & Go

Stanford Hall Theatre - Wednesday 4th to Saturday 7th June 2003

A Comedy Written By Derek Benfield

Directed By Lawrence Holmes

Adulterous Tale

Stanford Hall was packed out for Saturday's performance by the Falcon Players, and most of the audience seemed quite pleased with the offering. Comedy farce 'Touch and Go', by Derek Benfield, was a well-woven tale about suburban married life, affairs and all the complications endured by the four adulterers whose lies catch up with them.

Introduce two couples, Jessica and George, and Brian and Hilary. Carefully planned meetings on Wednesday consist of George - played well by Andy Holt - lending his house to Brian, humourously portrayed by Alan Whiteland. Brian has a girlfriend on the side, Wendy (played by Roxie Cross) and they meet there, purely to go to bed, thinking that George goes to the pub to play darts. In fact, he nips round to Brian's to indulge in Hilary, played by Tania Cound, who thinks that her husband is out jogging. Jessica (Tina Addington) appeared pure until the final scene, when she arranges a Wednesday meeting with a secret lover.

The finale sees the five characters together, and all is revealed to a pleased Hilary, who is now free to do as she pleases, an outraged Brian, who thought he was getting the best of both worlds, and a scared George, who is convinced that Brian will do him in.

There were titters from the audience regularly, The occasional laugh-out-loud bits were done well, particularly when George, about to seduce Hilary, meticulously removed his trousers, revealing huge Union Jack boxer shorts. And, on managing to leave his clothes behind attempts to sit down next to his wife in his too-small suit he bought from Oxfam.

The moment of truth dawned on Brian was a classic, as were his exhausted entrances after running between home and his tête-à-têtes with Wendy.

However, the overall standard of performance was not as high as you would expect from an established company. 

Katherine Evans - Loughborough Echo, 13/06/03