4. Performance Adjudication

a) Actors

Leo - Richard Kirkham
This was excellent casting, this actor got great response on his entrance. The "Kylie / Karen / Kelly" confusion was well handled by this actor and elsewhere he gave the audience many good laughs. These included "wouldn't say no to a cuppa tea", "those things always remind me of Christmas", "extremely well punctuated", "no thank you" (to being offered a bowl of condoms) and "must be the excitement". He got applause when he first left the stage, after a marvellous comic scene. He returned and performed an excellent and realistic heart attack. Well done!

Dan - Steve Allen-Gurr
It was a shame this actor was initially blocked by Lynette, as I couldn't see him to engage with the character, at first. After this I liked his attitude towards Grace and her 'helpful' interjections. A slight mistake came when he took down Lynette's number wrong, but this was easily excusable. His lines "uses it as a money box" and "the morals of a large black rat" got notable reactions from the audience too.

b) Actresses
Lynette - Sarah Flannery
This role has a lot of stage time and there was much to commend about this actress' performance of it. She made good coughs it the opening sections which weren't too forced. There was some slowness on cues (this takes practice) and quietness of lines. Also, sometimes her hair got in the way and she could have been advised to put it up sometimes. Nevertheless, she understood the role and was capable in it.

I felt she needed a more pointed reaction to Sorrel mentioning her father, her tears came too suddenly. She made Lynette clearly a worrier although she barely reacted when Sorrel first confessed to the police - an important moment and I was looking to see what Lynette would do. When she added a nought to Tracy's offer she had great energy and gave good vocal force to "Now piss off". Her final "1...2...3" was also good.

Sorrel - Anna Green
With this character being 16, and the actress being in her 20s, this was a difficult to assess. On one level, the production made a rod for its own back by casting this actress and created a hurdle for the audience to repeatedly overcome. The dramatic impact of Sorrel's dances' for Leo was lost, for example, as Ayckbourn had intended Sorrel's age to be a shocking factor. The audience never truly overcame this and found Anna Green unbelievable in the role, but that said, having been cast the actress did much to make the role her own.

Her opening lines to Lynette all went upstage, which was a shame. This is something to avoid as it hinders the establishment of the character. Sorrel's immature strops - threatening to leave - didn't come through strongly as child-like and emotional enough. These moments work with a 16-year-old actress, but this performer did little to age herself 'down'.

She really meant the line "double crossing slob", which was good. "Stickly vanilla", "are you game?", "Not all at once!" and "all spot" were all delivered well. There was some rather samey intonation that, by the middle of the play, became a bit one-level - how could this have been varied? Possibly a better understanding of Sorrel's various emotional states would have been useful.

Preening herself next to Leo was well done and each various attempt to get his attention got a great reaction. There were a lot of these which were well-created and the audience howled over and over again. This sequence was followed by sex noises from off-stage, again these got good reactions. Her panting over the sofa was odd, it seemed a bit extreme.

A funny section came with toe "Lord of the dance" and she also did well in the confession scene. There was more of what we had already seen in the later stages of the production - and this became a problem: she was overall too similar throughout the play and was unable to show the development of the character and her relationships comprehensibly. Sorrel's attitude to herself and to her mother drastically changes, but this didn’t really come over. There was much to commend about this performance but perhaps the casting was an insurmountable enigma.

Kelly - Ali Clarke
This actress played this supporting part well and had many highlights. She gave a good initial reaction to Sorrel's plan and there were some well-executed lines including "net nanny" and "that'll slake me a pimp". The actress was facially excellent; her character was very believable and she got many laughs. The- "Kylie / Karen / Kelly" confusion with Leo was good as was the "Lord of the dance" song. In last scene, "Euthanasia" worked well and her sudden tears worked. Well done.

Grace - Lyn Slinger
The most was made of this cameo role by this actress. Her thick northern accent was charming and she was a popular character. Do a lot of scrubbing do you?", and "sharp as a two-edge sword" were well received, as were so many of her lines. It was great that this character was made so zany and fun, thank you. Her super exit line - "Merry Christmas" - after quoting Revelations at the other characters was a gem. This got a great reaction, rounding off a fine supporting contribution.

Tracy - Sheenah Wiseman
This was originally a male role but there were no issues with casting a woman in the role. Perhaps the role was not established straight away as she faced upstage to Sorrel for her first few lines. Her good London accent was right for the play, but perhaps clashed with all the northern voices in this production. Another fine contribution to the ensemble.