(The Echo)

Mention a balcony scene and most people will call to mind Romeo and Juliet or Private Lives. For me, now, however it will forever be this play. I can't even begin to explain the situation but suffice it to say that the audience was reduced to near hysteria by this brilliantly performed scene. The play itself is not, I think, one of Ayckbourn's best. In Doctor Who fashion, the action switches between three time periods, each 20 years apart, and takes a massive amount of concentration on the part of the audience as events are re-written. However, I have absolutely no quibble with the superb set and lighting effects, nor with Lesley Lock's excellent direction, the performances of the first-class cast or the hard-working stage crew.
Rosie Lock is simply brilliant as Ruella Wells, second wife of businessman Reece (the ever-versatile Tony Edwards). She is totally at home on the stage and her facial expressions, mannerisms, timing and delivery are a joy. Michelle Batcock excels too as dominatrix Poopay, coping well with an unintended (presumably) first-night costume problem, and Paula Davies is also well cast as Reece's first wife, Jessica. Brian Foley is suitably sinister as the evil Julian, while Martyn French displays his excellent comic timing to great advantage as hotel security man Harold.

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UGLINESS BECOMES A THING OF BEAUTY(Linda Kirkman, The Echo)

This re-working of Hans Anderson's Ugly Duckling story is, quite simply, delightful,
the production team of Lesley Lock, Claire Camble-Hutchins and Alastair Hume have done the company proud. The cast play swans, ducks, frogs, cats and more in a variety of highly original costumes with not a beak or feathered head to be seen, yet there is absolutely no doubt as to what they are portraying. And, as ever with ASDS, the characterisations are spot-on all round. In particular, Simon Trueick, grey suited and bespectacled, is wonderfully applealing as Ugly, and Paula Davies brings a tear to the eye as his anguished mother Ida. Tony Edawards is impressive as a showman-type Bullfrog, and Rosie Lock (Queenie) and Mia Skytte-Jensen (Lowbutt) prove an excellent comic pair, while Peter Nunan is every inch the baddie as Cat. The score is very reminiscent of Sondheim, and seemingly just as complex, so perhaps that is reason why the singing is not always quite as tuneful as it might be. But with such a lovely, heart-warming story so beautifully portrayed by the company, I'll forgive them anything.