Secret Bridesmaids’ Business

ELIZABETH Coleman’s play skilfully blends comedy surrounding pre-nuptial rituals with a serious look at whether enough thought is given to the relationships of couples beyond the wedding day.

Bride-to-be Meg (Ashley Wyatt) is spending the night before the wedding in an upmarket hotel suite with her ever-fussing mother Colleen (Karin Dowie) and bridesmaids Angela (Melissah Comber) and Lucy (Tricia Morosin).

When they are alone, Lucy tells Angela she has heard that groom James has been having an affair. Angela is reluctant to comply with Lucy’s call for Meg to be told. Another complication is that the woman involved in James’ possible two-timing could be a friend of Meg, Naomi.

The night’s revelations and their outcomes spill into the wedding morn, with James (Craig Lindeman) and Naomi (Kaysia Dowie) both making an appearance.

Director Luke Yager and the actors brought out the play’s humour and the underlying seriousness well, with a scene in which the bride and bridesmaids play a game of truth-or-dare being sharply funny as the answers increasingly point to the dilemma that Meg could be about to face.

Each character delivers a short monologue to the audience at a crucial point in the events that helps to explain the reasons for their behaviour. For two of the characters, Yager took the unusual but successful step of presenting the monologues on film, so that brief glimpses of life-shaping incidents in their backgrounds could be shown.

Ken Longworth  

Images: Melissah Comber and Ashley Wyatt & Ashley Wyatt and Karin Dowie.

To keep up with the latest news and reviews at Stage Whispers, click here to like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.