LADIES DAY

Sunninghill Hall, Dorchester

A DAY at the races usually means that the contents of your wallet disappear faster than the winning horse dashes past the post but Amanda Whittington’s comedy also focuses on family life as well as financial folly.

Dorchester Drama field a well balanced cast of four fish-filleting females who decide to discard their overalls and rubber gloves for the day in exchange for fancy frocks and big hats in a celebration of the impending retirement of one of their number.

What follows is an amusing and sometimes poignant tale as they reveal secrets of their private lives and the pain of personal relationships that have gone astray.

Monica Hunt is the retiree with Fran Sansom, Ellie Martin and Priya Nair as her work colleagues who let the champagne go to their heads when they spend a day at York Racecourse where fashion competes with horseracing expertise.

In this artificial upper class atmosphere, the four women fiddle their way into the main concourse as they join in the gossip and girlie fun to the broadcast accompaniment of a television reporter – played by Martin Stephen who teaches us all to interpret bookies’ tictac sign language – while an offstage race commentator recites the progress of each race and Tony Christie belts out his hit song Amarillo at full volume just to keep the party in full swing.

Under the direction of Peter Stockman, the cast – and the audience - are mercifully spared the ordeal of dealing with strong Yorkshire accents in a production that manages to blend the crassness of robust comedy with the tender feelings of love and guilt within family relationships. The end result is an interesting mixture of brashness and longing.

Also appearing, Colin Elphick takes on a number of minor roles while Jonathon White as a jockey gets to rant on the sacrifices of staying slim and bookie Rob Sansom completes the cast as he reveals his own secrets in an unexpected emotional climax.

The production continues for the rest of the week.

MARION COX