Once again we are indebted to our loyal supporters who, despite inclement weather, flocked to see our January 2024 show with three out of the four performances being sold out. There were many smiling faces at the curtain call and it seems we achieved our aim of alleviating those January blues! Huge thanks to our director, David Pritchard: not content with taking on that key responsibility, he also took one of the lead roles as well as frequently helping with the set build. The whole production was a typical Adel Players team effort and many thanks to all those members, onstage and backstage, who worked tirelessly to make it a success. As usual, please see below for some pictures by way or reminder and reviews plus audience reaction will follow in due course.

A fast-paced and very funny play set in the back gardens of feuding neighbours. It is the night of Michael's and Roma's fancy dress house-warming party. The evening looks set to be a lively one until a string of hilarious disasters strike, including a distinct lack of guests, a burning garden shed, a marauding Zimmer frame and the prospect of an irate husband on the prowl.

Our thanks to Jenny Jones for this review written for the local magazine, Adel Bells

A play about a BBQ, a garden fence, and a Zimmer frame …what could go wrong? It was the end of a very icy week when our party of six went gingerly across the car park at AWMA. We’d been anxiously watching the weather in case it got worse, but thankfully it was up at a balmy 1.5 degrees when we arrived. The bar was full, and when we got into our seats, the hall was filled to capacity. 

The play was set on the day of a housewarming party; a long list of friends invited later that evening, to a “Reverse fancy dress”, men dressed as women, women as men. The set was simple but effective. Adjoining gardens of terrace houses, one belonging to the snippy Mrs. Hinson, the other the home of Michael Smethurst, and his long-suffering wife Roma. The difference between the houses was obvious, the old lady’s showing signs of disrepair, and next door’s newly refurbished.  Mickey, as his wife called him, was a “skip rat”, proudly showing off his finds, Roma telling him which houses were being sold and would soon have a skip. Played by Robert Colbeck, Mickey had obsessive personality traits, everything had to be timed to the last minute, although unfortunately he forgot to take the meat for the BBQ out of the freezer, culminating in Roma dropping it from a first-floor window in an attempt to separate the pork chops. Michael did everything at top speed, whilst Roma answered the phone, as yet more guests cancelled. Meanwhile, in the next garden, Mrs. Hinson’s son David turns up, and as his mother plies him with tea and biscuits, and later pears and custard, with the promise of a rice pudding. He is trying to persuade her to move to a smaller place, nearer to him and his wife, Jennifer. It’s obvious there’s no love lost between the two women, and in an act of sheer frustration, after yet another mention of David’s first wife, Jennifer tosses the Zimmer frame over the fence into the next-door garden.

Party time brought the biggest laugh with Michael dressed in a strapless dress, as Ginger Rogers,  Roma, looking immaculate in top hat and tails, as Fred Astaire.  As expected, tempers rose with the heat of the BBQ, the smoke drifted over Mrs. Hinton’s washing…large knickers and a pinny…, the music is deemed far too loud, and the Hinsons all arrive round, together with only two guests, not in fancy dress, who are determined to drink the bar dry. 

This was pure farce from start to finish, entrances and exits executed at speed and misunderstandings of names. There were also a couple of incidents of pure slapstick, think Ginger Rogers’ wig, some water, and a barbecue. The audience was appreciative, people laughed out loud, at what was one incident after another. A person near me said, “It takes a lot to make me laugh nowadays, but I’ve laughed all the way through, I have enjoyed it so much. The best escape from the cold weather.”

Adel Players, you never disappoint, thank you for entertaining us in whatever you perform. Party Piece was food for the soul, and definitely the best antidote to freezing weather.

Jenny Jones