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REVIEW: Cold Comfort Farm, Chichester Players, New Park Centre, Chichester.
Cold Comfort Farm is the play chosen by the Chichester Players to celebrate their 75th anniversary year.
Set in the 1930's it is a comical take on the British love of period dramas. The young orphaned heroine Flora Poste known as Robert Poste's daughter descends on her rural relatives in the rustic setting of the fictional village of Howling. Arriving with her pilot colleague Charles, she is not impressed with their colloquial charms, sitting uncomfortably with her sophisticated ways.
However she is soon engrossed in sorting out the lives and loves of her new family, though not helped by the antagonistic and almost insane matriarchal grandmother Ada Doom, who throughout the performance refers to "seeing something nasty in the woodshed"! Flora bonds with country loving Elphine and smoothes the path of true love for her and the young squire Richard Hawk-Monitor, along with suggestions and challenges for each member of the household.
This large cast of 20, directed by Ron Stewart coped well with the limited space available due to an over ambitious staging of 5 different sets from cowshed to church! Unfortunately this proved too demanding and left the audience with long pauses between scenes and thus losing much of the momentum, which was unfortunate.
However the casting of the young leading lady (Sophie Mabbit) and her mother (Deborah Mabbit) as the reclusive grandmother was brilliant. The performances of these two were excellent, Sophie for her endearing charm and Deborah for her wild rantings but culminating in ultimate elation! Mention too for Tom Worthen (Richard Hawk-Monitor) and David Brown (Earl P Neck) who both excelled with the humour they brought to their supporting roles, and never failing with their respective accents!
All in all this is an amusing production that offered plenty of scope for the cast to indulge in regional dialects and entertaining farmyard antics!
Jill Lawrie
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Weather for Chichester
Tuesday 14 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 6 C to 9 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 4 C to 10 C
Wind Speed: 22 mph
Wind direction: North west
