"Veronica's Room" by Ira Levin

West Bridgford Dramatic Society

The Studio, West Bridgford.

I have three firsts here. I have, as far as I can remember not reviewed or seen any production by West Bridgford Dramatic Society, nor have I ever been to The Studio previously. I've also, again as far as I can remember, not seen this play before.

The Studio, from the outside looks like a Scout Hut, but inside this tardis of a Scout Hut lies a fully functioning theatre complete with bar and foyer, which I was pleasantly surprised with, and it's quite a fair-sized theatre complete with raked seating.

The front of house staff were really welcoming and we were able to reserve our drinks from the start, beating the wait in the interval. West Bridgford Dramatic Society had also sent me an email prior to my visit with an e-programme to download, but they also offered a physical programme, which I also bought, as I do like a hard copy programme. I know, not very green but a lovely reminder of the cast and my first visit to the Studio.

Ira Levin's thriller certainly has plenty of twists and his characters are complex, so you're never quite sure of some of the characters themselves, and you get a feeling that there is something not quite right with some of the characters as you make your way through the play. Levin is probably best known for another twisted thriller "Rosemary's baby", and this is every bit as thrilling.

The four characters are not named in the programme, only as "The Man", "The Woman", "The Young Man" and "The Girl", this is so as not to spoil the plot and outcome for the viewer, and straight away intrigued me, as I also do not like to know the story line of new plays I am invited to see; that way I get no spoilers to pre judge the play by.

The setting for the play is in Boston, Massachusetts and the year is 1973. 

A middle-aged Irish couple, The Woman and The Man, bring a young couple to the Boston home where they are caretakers. The Girl and The Young Man have recently begun to date the week before, and the older couple approached them at a restaurant due to The Girl's resemblance to a dead woman, Veronica. They explain that Veronica's elderly, senile sister, Cissie, who still believes that the year is 1935 is now their charge, and The Girl agrees to dress up as Veronica in an effort to bring Cissie a sense of closure. The Young Man and the older pair leave Susan alone in Veronica's preserved bedroom to change into a period outfit. And this is where things start to get decidedly more twisted.

Amanda Pearce (The Woman) was wonderful, and I had made up my mind that Amanda must have some Irish blood in her as the accent was so good. Act Two confirmed to me what a talent Amanda is, as she completely fooled me altogether. As I did not know the play, or the story, Act two with Amanda just blew me away. Why have I not seen Amanda before? I've missed out on probably many brilliant roles that she has portrayed, because if this was anything to go by, WBDS have great talent that I have missed out on. Frighteningly scary is how I would describe The Woman in the second act, and as we progressed through act two, those twists came frequently. The programme states that this is Amanda's first role in a thriller, hopefully not her last!

Tim Farrow (The Man). Now I will be honest here as I was not overly impressed with the obviously fake Irish accent in act one, but come act two, as with Amanda, he came back and wowed me with a completely different persona and accent, which by the way Tom nailed. I won't give too much away but he does aggressive and scary really well. Tim has been well matched with Amanda and the pair of them is enough to make you uneasy and will make you want to lock your doors at night!

Rosie Randall (The Girl). What a wonderfully natural actor Rosie is. This performance is only Rosie's second outing with WBDS and recently graduated from Manchester University with a degree in drama; and that degree was put to excellent use as The Girl. You could feel the emotions that The Girl was feeling because Rosie made you climb inside the head of the character. If a character is going to have an accent, I like the accent to sound the way it should do, and Rosie's sounded completely natural.

James Wallace (The Young Man) has only just returned to the local theatre stage; he last trod the boards back in 2012. I'll admit that in act one, you could be fooled by the moustache, and also reminded me of a computer game character, but then I reminded myself that this is set in 1973, so would be apt to look in the way that he did. At the start of act two and he did not appear, I wondered if his character had been killed off and my mind started wandering as to where he was; we soon found out! Again, as with Amanda and Tim, the level of acting heightened in Act two, and then it hit me. The penny dropped. My jaw dropped. I knew why there was that difference and that increased my admiration for all three as actors. I won't say anymore as I do not want to spoil the fun for people reading this who wants to go and see this cracking thriller.

Directed by Tony Vokes, and assisted by Calum Sharp. They kept me guessing throughout act one and kept my unease riding throughout act two, and I did not expect the ending at all. Brilliantly cast actors, and because of these elements, my time at the Studio simply flew by. It is only a short play but I was so engrossed, the time flew.

Set Designer Bakewell created a one room set, there was no need for anything outside that room as that is where everything took place. Everything that happened outside that bedroom door all materialised in my mind. The furniture and props were wonderful, especially the old record player and I noticed the old style round black light switch on the wall by the door. I had not seen one of those since I was a kid. Everything in that room, whatever the size was perfect to date the story. Oh, and I also loved that writing bureau, it was gorgeous.

The Sound Design is by Ritchie Sharpe, operated by Margarita Papadopoulou. Now here I have just one very minor criticism, not that anyone else probably even noticed. When the record player, which was situated on the side wall, was used to play "Shuffle Off To Buffalo", the old style, all in one player has a speaker at the front of the unit. The music came from the corner of the room behind the door through one of those modern Alexa style speakers. It could have been placed under the record player to make it sound like the music was emitted from the player itself. As I said, probably only me who spotted that, it's miniscule and in no way did this detract from me loving the play and the actors' performances.

Lighting Design by John Fletcher, and operated by Rob Dixon. The flickering lamp bulb on the side table, near the bed, created quite an eerie feel, almost as if someone from another world was trying to pass on some kind of warning to The Girl. Whether this was intentional or maybe a bulb on the way out, who cares, it did it for me.

Michelene Harris was in charge of the costumes for this play, as well as sourcing props. Michelene looks to have done her homework and received gold stars because, as I mentioned earlier, those props were fantastic. Oh, I forgot to mention the wardrobe as well, which could have hid Mr Tumnus inside. the costumes were brilliant and completely time sensitive.

Production Manager is Rosie Farrow.

Well, my first visit to The Studio and WBDS' productions, I would say was a massive success. I loved the play, it made me uneasy and shocked me with some of the content but isn't that what WBDS set out to do with this piece of theatre? They certainly succeeded and I hope that I get an invite to their future productions as my appetite for their shows has been well and truly whet.

If you've never been out to see this group in the past, get yourself a ticket for this play. If you already know what a talented lot these are, get yourself a ticket for this play.

"Veronica's Room" is at The Studio, Stamford Road, West Bridgford until Saturday 21 May.