by Richard Harris
4th, 5th and 7th July 2007
Directed by
Tricia Richardson
Synopsis.
Take a mixed bag of women, add a man and you get the ingredients for a play. Add what goes on in people’s lives behind the facade that everyone portrays and you have a plot. If the setting is unusual then you have the basis for a first rate story. This is what happened when Richard Harris put this mix together in a church hall and made them dance.
There are eight students, who have a variety of backgrounds, ages, sizes and abilities, and each has his or her own reason for joining. For instance:-,
Maxine - a confident, fast-talking saleswoman, is there on doctor's orders (Wendy Marchant)
Andy - a plain do-gooder with no confidence participates because it is the only thing she does for herself. (Wendy East)
Then there’s snobby but well-meaning Vera. (Sarah Jayne Bottrill)
Timid Dorothy who works for the Social Security. (Anne Pinkus)
There’s nurse Lynne – quiet and unassuming (Jo Halkett)
Cheerfully overweight Sylvia (Jenny Heusen)
Rose, fun loving with a foreign accent (Debbie Pokorny)
Finally, Geoffrey the lone male widower. (Rob Hine)
Whatever their cause, they make a point of coming every week to chat, relax and, if they can manage to, learn a couple of dance steps.
Led by Mavis, their eternally patient instructor and ex-professional dancer (Lisa Heusen), and accompanied by the acerbic pianist Mrs. Fraser (Sue Harvey).
Finally, a couple of Sugar Plum Fairies make an appearance (Melanie Winward and Chris Lepp)
The students (who range from hopeless to competent) strive to master the basics of dance.
But the steps and routines are just the background for the real focus of the play -- the relationships and interactions of these ten very different people. By their final performance, not only have the class members developed some degree of skill, but they have also overcome the inhibitions, awkwardness and personality conflicts that have kept them out of sync.