ONE ACT PLAY Nottingham Lace Market Theatre
Written by Matt Fox.

Yet again set in the intimate upstairs theatre space of the Lace Market Theatre this was the ideal setting for "One Act Play".

With more dissections of the human character and what we thought we knew about ourselves and life than can be found in a hospital theatre than in t' standard theatre.One man and one woman are sitting in bed chatting away but we find out that all is not quite as it seems and has one big, very unexpected twist at the end, one that I definitely didn't see coming!!

The play breaks down all theatrical rules and de constructs the whole idea of theatre that we've come to love, but with such warmth and hilarity and just a little humanity and pathos. We discover that "One Act Play" creates the writer as a God, a creator of everything that they currently know. He's in charge of their every word and action, but then our characters start to gently rebel, lambast and insult their very creator. This again turns the tables on the whole acting bible with refreshing honesty as from t' viewpoint of t' standard man in t' street. Thar's also some rather wonderful over t' top Yorkshire accenting goin' off thar as well! By gum!

This is one play where all the comedy is played through the script as there is no physicality to speak of and this really accentuates the wonderful comic lines of Matt's work. But the lines can only really come to life through two wonderful character actors, Lorna Mccullough and Ian Bennett, both of which I've seen on several occasions in various plays and have enjoyed their varied acting history.

Lorna is delightful and reminds me of another wonderful actress, Annette Crosbie in this play. And Ian, facially very expressive and can often raise a smile by just raising an eyebrow, as proven even before the play started. Combined with these talents, Lorna and Ian bring the warm and funny script bouncing to surreality (is there such a word?). Some nice comic timing between the pair which made you feel comfortable with them as a pair in their characters.

A short play coming in at about 45 minutes long but packed with some genius wordplay and two very funny performances from our two handers. Lovingly directed by Amber Forrest, if there were any tickets left I'd advise you to snap them up but tonight was sold out, as is tomorrow afternoon and tomorrow evening.

Maybe Matt and co were just testing the water with this play by just running it over two days, who knows. I'd have loved this play to be on longer. or maybe a revisit to the Lace Market, because I think there could have been another couple of days success there. But isn't there that old theatrical adage..."always leave them wanting for more".