"Silly Cow" by The Bonington Players

Bonington Theatre Arnold.

Written by Ben Elton, his plays show, for me at least, that he is funnier in his writing than in his stand-up comedian period. I'd previously only seen "Popcorn" on stage, but this play has really won me over in the Ben Elton stakes.

"Silly Cow" is a slick and razor-sharp satire on the viciousness of tabloid journalism. Doris Wallis is a newspaper columnist and arts reviewer with a talent for caustic insults and career assassination. When we meet Doris, she is being sued by the actress Trudi Hobson, after writing an article which savaged the respected thespian with accusations of small talent and large thighs. Doris isn’t worried: she’s got a job offer, a plan for a television show, and the cleavage to help the judge see things her way.

Doris has a personal assistant who will do anything for her, incredibly eager to please, an active and varied sex life as well as a twenty-one-year-old toy-boy, who can also keep her supplied with cocaine. Basically, things could not be better for Doris as she lives the life of the celebrities whose reputation she is only too happy to destroy.

But she’s about to discover that even journalists can’t escape reaping what they have sown, and that there’s nothing quite as dramatic as the revenge of a scorned actress.....

Set in the 1980's we get to see a montage of classic 80's celebrity on screen before any action takes place on stage. Having not seen the film, read the book or the play previously, this production was my first introduction to the play, and I loved it!

The script is fast moving and the one liners and caustic comments run back-to-back, with some of the quick quips being missed by some of the audience; or maybe I just found them funnier than some of the others in the crowd. Needless to say, this script is packed with funny lines, and the cast deliver with great enthusiasm and pace.

The cast need no singling out as together they perform like a well-oiled machine. The production is an ensemble piece with all five actors complementing each other. Eddie Januszczyk (Sidney Skinner - a hinted at has-been who has been brought back home to become a TV celebrity once more), Lindsey Hemingway (Doris Wallis), Charlotte Cordall (Peggy - Doris' personal assistant with a strange Northern accent, which becomes apparent as to why it is strange later in the play), Phil Ashford (Douglas Robertson - Doris' accountant) and Alex Brimelow (Eduardo - the streetwise toy boy).

Brilliantly designed and directed by Jonathan Greaves, the pace is kept up all the way to the end when we start to see several twists, which I certainly was not expecting, but when they did come, they started to explain some of the name checks of fictitious actors, victimised by Doris, strewn about in Act One.

I loved the "Wogan" section which started Act Two, and also ties in to how the play ends. The video sections are designed by David Goatham, who is also responsible for the Sound Design for the production.

The Lighting Design is by Peter Hodgkinson, so I knew that the lighting would be trouble-free.

The set is excellent, with plenty of 1980's touches like the phones and design from that era. With all of the social media around today, many of the comments, name checks and communication devices will seem dated to some who did not live through that decade, which makes it all the more fun for those of us who did.

There's a lot of naughty language throughout, so this may not be for the easily shocked; but for those who have a sense of humour, then this is the one to see this week. It may not be one of Ben Elton's most popular, or most performed works, but it's a real gem for theatre goers.

"Silly Cow" is at The Bonington Theatre in Arnold until Saturday 22nd.