Why Me?: June 1996
By Stanley Price
Newspaper Review
Shafts of brilliant script fail to light up tarnished comedy.
Why me? The name of the play and the plea of the reviewer.
A black comedy. Some shafts of brilliant witty script. But mostly set in a grey sea of patchy production and performance.
When the comedy by Stanley Price was on song between the six-strong cast it fizzed with quickfire humour and satirical observation drawn from a potentially unfunny plot of a businessman's plight after losing his job.
But those jewels were too far apart in a tarnished chain of missed cues and forgotten lines.
Credit to Susan Knights, whose cameo role as the dotty mother-in-law was as delightful as some of her down-to-earth comments on the chaos unravelling around her mundane world of radio phone-ins.
Kees Van Woerkrom wrings a blend of Victor Meldrew and Tony Hancock from the main role as redundant engineer John Bailey.
The action revolves around his difficult relationship with a successful businesswoman wife (Sally Strong) and affair with bored housewife neighbour (Bernice Escott).
Richard Batson
Scroll down for photos.
| Cast | Backstage |
| John Bailey: Kees Van Woerkom | Producer: Joan Spall |
| Mary Ferguson: Susan Knights | Stage Manager: Gerry Francis |
| Helen Bailey: Sally Strong | Props: Paul Cunliffe, Ann Cunliffe |
| Gwen Hollis: Bernice Escott | Prompt: Peggy Francis |
| Artur Hollis: Tim Travers | |
| Tom Bailey: Richard Fish |
