backstage prompt was redundant. The stage was designed by Alan Reidsma and his team. The walls were decorated with contemporary aged theatrical posters, a sprayed mirror with pearl lighting borrowed from ALT’s real dressing room and featured everything you would expect from a west-end dressing room. Both sound and lighting were designed and operated by Jan Taylor. The sound effects were well sourced, simple and yet incredibly effective, as were the recordings with backstage announcements. The lighting plot featured a balanced and fluid coverage. However, some of the fades between scenes were inconsistent in timing and resulted in two scenes briefly being finished in a blackout. The stage was managed by SM Lisa Barker and supported by Sophie Lambros. The scene changes were conducted by both in costume on three occasions, wearing boiler suits acting as cleaners, and they ad-libbed well. I am a fan of stage crew in costume and they did their changes methodically and quickly. The attention to detail was precise and fitting with the time from water in the kettle to a great variety and use of props. However, the stage markers were distracting and undesirable - please use some darker tapes, as was the blue light backstage which was seeping through the top of the flats onto the internal walls of the dressing room, a simple mistake that was clearly missed but quite obvious to the audience. I won’t spoil the ending in case you want to go and see the play, but I would strongly recommend a visit if you can – the play runs until Saturday 5th October and there are still seats left. There is no-where else around the UK currently playing this production. To finalise, the production was incredibly strong and I thoroughly enjoyed the evening. I do hope they can sell their remaining tickets for the rest of the run as Cook’s production is funny, well-paced and delivered with determination. I would like to thank Steve Smith, Vice-Chairman and society officials for their hospitality and backstage tour to see your facilities - they have a wonderful community asset in the centre of the town and I can’t wait to come back and see them all and Ian again next month in their next venture.
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