"Entertaining Angels" by Richard Everett.

Burton Joyce Players.

Burton Joyce and Bulcote Village Hall.

Up until May this year, I'd not even heard of this play, but this is the second time within six months that I've seen it. Not that I mind because, in my eyes, every production is different. This is also an ideal play to put on with the cast being four women to one man, not that Burton Joyce Players are short of good male actors.

Richard Everett’s bitter-sweet comedy is set in a quintessentially English vicarage garden.  It follows Grace, a recently widowed vicar’s wife coming to terms with his passing, the loss of her family home to the potential new lady vicar, Sarah, the return of her missionary sister, Ruth, and a daughter, Jo with her own issues.

Grace has spent a lifetime on her best behaviour. Following the death of her husband Bardolph, she is enjoying the new-found freedom of being able to do and say exactly as she pleases. But the return of her eccentric missionary sister, Ruth, together with some disturbing revelations, forces Grace to confront the truth of her marriage. At the same time, Sarah reveals some un-clergy-like credentials of her own to Grace’s therapist daughter Jo.

The blunt, sharp tongued and quick witted Grace is played by Kathy Matthews . Grace uses her wit and sharp tongue throughout the play to hide the general feeling of her being lost since the death of her husband, Bardolph. Grace comes out with some things that you wouldn't expect a lady of her years to come out with, which makes Grace a bit of a shocker. This is a really wordy piece and Kathy delivers every word with emotion and comedy, as well as a massive dose of realism, almost as if this isn't a role for her, which all goes to show what a lovely actor Kathy is.

Ruth is played by Donna Atherton. Like her sister, Ruth is an energetic woman who is all business. She feels better when busy and this rubs Grace up the wrong way regularly, especially with her Flymo. She is the typical older sister and holds a slight grudge against her more freely outspoken sister. After a certain confession from Ruth, there's  some quite emotional scenes between the two sisters.

Bardolph is played by Patrick McDonough. Bardy is a mild-mannered, relaxed individual; every inch a small village vicar. He is genuinely a kindly, friendly man whose gentle good humour is an even balance to his outspoken wife. It’s a pity he’s dead. He is not dithering or silly like some TV vicars, but just a genuinely charming man. He is however not backwards at laying things out straight to Grace. I've seen Patrick play several roles over the years, but this is the best I've seen Patrick on stage.

Jo is played by Kate Perdue. Like her mother and aunt, Jo has an ageless youthful quality to her. She seems to have never-ending patience, and she needs it with her family. Recovering from the painful end to her own marriage, via her husband’s infidelity, she is very supportive but not afraid to point out to her mother when she is in the wrong. 

Sarah, the new vicar, is played by Rebecca Kent. A strong-willed, energetic woman vicar for the modern world. All floaty dresses and Bluetooth headsets. She is seen by Grace as a polar opposite to the traditional vicars she is used to and therefore the relationship is strained, to start with.

I've not commented too much on the individual actors for one reason. The chemistry between this quintet is unbelievably good and the acting is so natural; it didn't feel as if I were sitting in a hall watching a play, it was more like I was in that garden being a fly on the garden wall. I was going to say ear-wigging, but some may not understand the pun!

Directed by Deborah Craddock, and everything about this production was spot on. The pace was excellent with spaced gaps to give the actors' lines to breath, and for the audience member to take in the revelations that were revealed throughout. Casting was excellent and the cast really breathed life into their characters making the characters three dimensional.

The set design is excellent. I loved the tidiness of the garden setting with the red brick house complete with hanging baskets and French windows leading on to a manicured lawn, patio area and greenhouse, plus the little stream section to the left of the stage. You could really see why Bardolph loved to go down by the stream to write his sermons as this section of the set design was idyllic. Long flowing tree foliage led to a grassy bank complete with a multitude of real plants and water shrubs, and the sound effects for the stream just completed the whole picture and atmosphere.

I love a set design with great props and this is a production with great props. Real plants, and plenty of them, real gardening paraphernalia, there was real drink in the teapot and milk jug, all that was missing was real water in the stream, but I don't suppose you can build a stream to run through the stage of a village hall, can you?

Lighting and sound was by Greg Nicholas. No grumbles from me on this front as all of the sound effects were delivered on time and the lighting was a simple fade system to signify the separation of the scenes.

Production team was made up of Patrick McDonough and Kathy Matthews.

The joy of seeing a play several times is that you see things you may have missed previously, as well as you get a different Director's view of the play, and that makes a big difference from Director to Director. It took me three times of seeing the musical "Cats" to actually start to understand the musical, so seeing a production several times is something that I look forward to because my enjoyment and appreciation of a theatre production heightens on every viewing.

What also makes the experience different every time for me is the audience reaction to parts of the speech and the play. Burton Joyce Players have a fiercely loyal fan base, and I could tell that this may have been most of the audience's first experience of this play, just due to the reactions, mainly of Grace and the things she comes out with. For me, part of the fun of seeing live theatre is listening to the audience, and every time I have been to see anything by this great drama group, the hall is packed out, so I know that I am going to feel their reactions, and I love that.

"Entertaining Angels" is at the Burton Joyce and Bulcote Village Hall until Saturday 19 October.