Ladies’ Day

With the spring racing carnival just around the corner, Ipswich Little Theatre’s choice to program this trifle was sound, and with a strong cast, the laughs were plenty.

The plot finds four lasses from a fish processing plant throwing off their wellies, hairnets and dust-coats for a day out at Royal Ascot in their finery and fascinators. Turning up ticketless, and unable to pay the ticket-tout’s exorbitant price for grandstand entry, one of them stumbles upon a toff’s handbag in the toilets, which luck would have it contains four grandstand tickets (this is one of those plays where co-incidences like this happen).

Pearl (Relle Scott) is celebrating early retirement and hoping to meet the bookie she’s been having an affair with. Linda (Shala Wilson) is a shy naïve girl with a Tony Christie complex and mummy troubles. The mother keeps sponging off her and she keeps forgiving her. Jan (Julie-Anne Wright) is an Aussie whose husband walked out on her when she got pregnant. She’s the keeper of the picnic hamper, whilst Shelley (Amelia Hassen) is a dolly-bird who wears tight-fitting clothes and seems to have jumped straight out of Coronation Street.

Callum Campbell plays all the blokes - fish-factory supervisor, ticket-tout, broadcaster and jockey. They gamble, they drink, and they reminisce as we discover their back stories.

Various locations are represented effectively on the Incinerator’s pocket stage, with footage of the races flashed across the left and right wall of the theatre.

Hassen shines as the fame and man hungry Shelley, with a spot on North Country accent, a faux-leather curve-hugging lime-green dress, and some vulnerability. Wright finds humor in getting sloshed, in asking what the others had for ‘tea’ (a cute running-gag), and a clumsy encounter with the supervisor. Scott’s Pearl is an all-too recognisable everywoman whose secret is not so secret when it is revealed. She’s at the races to try and find what happened to her bookie lover. It’s a nice tender moment when we find out and Campbell as Barry returns for one last poignant dance. Wilson’s friendly interlude with one of the jockeys nicely delineates the shy character, and her fixation with Tony Christie ultimately pays-off when the horses with Tony Christie song names streak home.

Campbell brought warmth and charm to every one of his roles and was particularly good as the broadcaster, the jockey and Barry the Bookie.

A fun play which the audience thoroughly enjoyed.

Peter Pinne