Too Friendly Theatre Company
Not With a Bang by Mike Harding
Ormskirk Civic Hall
Mike Harding’s 1983 play is a bawdy Lancashire comedy set in the days of CND and Greenham Common and tells what happens when the Clarke Family wives withdraw their favours from their menfolk until they resign from the ‘warmongering’ Territorial Army. ‘No nooky against the nukes’.
Sue Thomas looked 30 years too young for the part of Bella, the firebrand granny, who chivvied her errant offspring in between acting as narrator to the audience.
Mark Haygarth starred as the unpleasant chauvinist son, Nobby, a character straight out of Loaded, who treated his wife, Norma, like a chattel. Yet it was Norma’s resolve, a gritty performance by Joanne Wasilew, that led to the bonking boycott.
The voluptuous Andrea Culkin played grand-daughter, Pauline, married to the amiable and downtrodden Ken, Cliff Gillies showing great expertise in nappy changing.
Rob Darby got the role of the brash Tommy spot on, a man happy to escape the attentions of his moaning wife Eileen, a serial hypochondriac, who would have benefited from the use of a megaphone.
The whole cast played their parts with great gusto and obviously enjoyed every minute, as did the audience, but the play would have fared far better in the intimate surroundings of the Southport Arts Centre Studio rather than the cavernous civic hall which was set out with tables and chairs, more like a holiday camp canteen than a theatre.
Champ verdict 4/5 Naughty but nice.
