Formula farce still scores hit

THIS is what they want. The Falcon Players performed "Look Who's Talking" to an audience that laughed and clapped as if it were the last show on earth.

Performed at Stanford Hall Theatre last week, it was the eightieth production by the company.

This year is the Falcons' 30th anniversary. Since 1957 they have held unwaveringly to producing comedies and farces, and the audiences continue to lap it up.

The play opens at a comfortable home in equally comfortable Hertfordshire. The wild and wacky next two-and- a-half hours could have come from any domestic farce ever written.

The plot was ridiculous, the humour heavy-handed and trite and the show was unnecessarily long.

Despite all this, the audience of more than 200 was absolutely enthralled, drinking in every minute.

Irritating

Yvonne Marshall took the part of Sheila, a happily married middle-aged woman, unable to remember what had actually happened after a drunken school reunion. She recalls meeting Brian and going back to his flat, but not what happened there.

The irritatingly jovial Brian, played by Keith Hague, turns up at her Hertfordshire home to return her earrings.

Sheila's husband, Andrew, played by Roy Emmett, is a little confused to find a complete stranger in his sitting room. He is further confused when his secretary, Carole, played by Sally Hirst, turns up expecting him to take her for a weekend in Italy. 

Into the ensuing mayhem walks Jane (Jane Thomas), Sheila's friend, expecting a quiet Sunday lunch.

Judging from the audiences' reaction, the Falcon Players put their 30 years experience to good use and delivered a show that went down very well. Nice style — shame about the content.