Written by by Derek Benfield, by arrangement with Samuel French Ltd.
Directed by Estelle Wescombe
"Fish out of Water", by Derek Benfield, is undoubtedly the best performance that the Medstead Players have given yet, and it is good to report that it was standing room only at the village hall.
To my mind, the only faults to be found in the show, were the title (which had so little bearing on the action of the play) and the failure on the programme to give credit to the producer, Estelle Wescombe, for such a first rate production. From the time the curtain rose on the imaginative setting of a small hotel lounge, the atmosphere of the Italian Riviera was complete.
The play concerns the reaction of the austere hotel guests when the overpowering Mrs. Hepworth, played with brash compulsion by Estelle, arrives with her brow-beaten sister Fiona.
Ann Penn in the part of Fiona, was splendid and by her gestures, movements, and intonations, extracted all the comedy out of a character that was written for laughter.
John Hurst, with his barrack room voice and his roving eye represented, with his more retiring stage wife, Joan Allsop, typical affluent continental holidaymakers.
The other hotel guest, Dora Cowley, the bus conductress played by Pam Kercher, was on her first trip abroad with a package tour.
Geraldine Emson had a small, but interesting, part as the helpful young waitress, Marisa, who had to repulse the tentative advances of Len Barren (Gordon Emson).
Mr. Mallett (Max Chitty) was the dim bank cashier who missed the bus in so many ways and plagued the life out of the travel agent, played by Stan Whitcher. The final curtain fell on poor Stan being chased off the stage by an amorous Agatha Hepworth.
The plot itself was negligible, but the situations were comic and the dialogue amusing. Under Estelle's excellent direction, the play came to life and was good theatre. The natural way in which unprogrammed guests wandered through the scenes and the bikini-clad girls raised masculine blood pressures, was good production.
The delicate charm of the Italian decor, the high standard of all the acting and, above all, the witty characterisation by Ann Penn, combined to make first rate entertainment. [N.H.C.]
