Folk: NODA Review

Author: Gordon Harris

Director: Mandy Hunt has pulled together an excellent team. Her direction clearly gave her actors confidence to deliver convincing characters and everyone obviously knew what was required of them.

Set Design: Trevor Mumford and his team certainly worked their magic with excellent set design and execution. I can’t imagine how it could have been improved. The realism was super – stairs to the bedrooms, doors to the kitchen, and the front door was sound enough to be slammed several times! It was particularly pleasing to see a character come into the kitchen from outside door, and then through the kitchen into the sitting room. Attention to detail deserves an award of its own!

Properties: Claire Bushell and Caroline Powell dressed the set beautifully with knick-knacks and religious icons. The various props were realistic and that always helps the actors to play with confidence.

Wardrobe: Shelia Jackson. Well realised – again giving the players added confidence in their performance.

Sister Winnie – Kathryn Gee. Initially Kathryn played Sister Winnie a little too gently and understated for me. It was actually quite difficult to hear her at times and so it took a few minutes to pick up the Irish accent. It certainly had improved by Scene 2 and she established the warmth of her character particularly well. Bearing in mind the action takes place over a period of 5 or 6 weeks it wasn’t clear that Winnie was possibly already an ailing lady at the beginning of the play, nor was her rapid decline into poor health signposted very clearly for the audience. That being said – Kathryn evoked likeability and kindness very well throughout and you could see why Stephen and Kayleigh were happily lead to a better place in their lives by the conclusion of the play.

Stephen – Geoff Dale. What a find! A confident musician and an actor made for the role. He established his character early on and managed to show his growth from inarticulate beginnings to the almost confident parental role that he was destined for. The only thing that was a little off putting was the ‘business’ of fixing the broken window, which was strangely unconvincing. That shouldn’t detract from Geoff’s obvious skill to engage and entertain as an actor.

Kayleigh – Elizabeth Watson. Certainly knew how to make an entrance! Very good diction and audibility – and really injected energy from the word go. Kayleigh too grew throughout the play both in confidence and characterisation. It is clear that Elizabeth is an accomplished actress.

Thank You Lindley players for giving us, once again, a solid performance both in set and Direction by Mandy Hunt.