Popular Partington Players’ actor Linda McAlinden made her directorial debut at Glossop's Henry Street theatre in style recently.
Linda extracted every last ounce of humour from Sandi Toksvig's brilliantly crafted comedy Silver Lining which completed its six-performance run earlier this month and she did it beautifully.
To be honest I wasn't looking forward to watching a play set in a retirement home threatened with flooding and how a bunch off oldies coped.
But I was eating my words just minutes after the curtain lifted. The play itself is packed with laughs and the action was exquisitely handled by some superb acting.
These retirees had a real zest for life - a determination built through age to get on with things.
I particularly liked the way Linda localised Toksvig's work, setting the Silver Lining Retirement Home in Glossop and introducing realistic sounding radio emergency warnings of torrential rain causing havoc throughout the High Peak.
And that everyone in Glossop, but obviously not in Silver Lining, had been rescued.
How do the residents react? Well, they respond to the impending deluge by building a raft out of the day room furniture and having a laugh at the Titanic film.
I had always seen Toksvig as a comedian and presenter but the way she wove the plot, threading each of the character’s stories, why they were in the home, their problems and resilience, was magical, funny and at times highly moving.
The action revolves around the residents who appear to have been abandoned, Hope Daley, a totally inappropriately named care worker sent to rescue them and Jed, a looter who sneaks in to steal anything he can lay his hands on.
Jordan Williams was Hope Daley, the care worker who arrives with an obvious intolerance of old people and having no idea what to do but eventually warms to her task.
Once again, the Partington casting team came up with a class of experienced actors who could make a part their own and bring out every aspect of the character they were portraying.
Taking on various roles with professional-level performances were Sue Sunman, as Gloria Bernhardt; Hazel Phillips, as June Pheasant; Felicity Hardy-Birt, as May Trickett; Joyce Willis as ‘St. Michael’; Linda Boyle as Maureen Cookson; while Keidis played the part of Jed.
A brilliant, laugh-out loud show.
Having staged the ever-popular One Act Festival, Partington Players are now busy rehearsing for their final production of the year - Maxine Peake’s play ‘Beryl’ - which tells the story of Beryl Burton, the inspirational English racing cyclist who dominated the sport for decades.
The play will be shown later in June.
Review by DAVID JONES
