One O'Clock from the House: June 2010
By Frank Vickery
Newspaper Review
It's a funeral, a sombre occasion and the family gathers to pay its repects to a recently deceased father. Filial "grief" fills the room.
Cue laughter. For this dysfunctional group include a wellington-clad cook who bakes almondless almond cakes, a relative who brings a shopping trolley called Rover and a sister who's a happy inmate of a psychiatric home. What must poor old dad have gone through? It's little wonder, then, that the old boy managed to have the last laugh - with a posthumous joke on three of his daughters.
This is a large cast, with seven women and five men, so enough characters to give each player a satisfying role.
Carol Squires covers the happy inmate with a delightful quirkiness while David Starling as beleagured husband Austin and Greg Pope as the wellie-booted Tudor, play it with well-timed understatement. There were fun cameos too from Brenda Williams, Stuart MacInnes and Nick Bird. Welsh playright Frank Vickery is known for his unique black humour and trademark one-liners and this play, directed by Nigel Manson, is considered on of his most famous comedies. But you don't need to be Welsh to enjoy it.
Patrick Prekopp
Scroll down for photos, cast and crew.
| Cast (in order of appearance) | Backstage |
| Miriam: Serena Cain | Director/ Producer: Nigel Manson |
| Josey: Sapphire Cain | Stage Manager: Cherl MacInnes |
| Austin: David Starling | Set and Design: Kees Van Woerkom |
| Tudor: Greg Pope | Props: Janet Lawrence, Gwynneth Starling |
| Margaret: Janette Davidson | Prompt: Joan Spall, Helen Sawyer |
| Maureen: Bernie Alexandrou | Photos: Ben Britton |
| Mavis: Carol Squires / Lorraine Pope | Assistant to Director/Backstage: Damien Hagarty |
| Avril: Brenda Williams | Rehearsal Stand-in/Backstage: Sara Russell |
| Mansell: Stewart MacInnes | |
| Desmond: Carl Denis | |
| Hugh: Nick Bird | |
| Warden: June Cooper |
