Two divorcees decide to 'give it a go'. The husband of Liz has left her for a younger woman and she is left embittered and suffering from low self-esteem. It transpires that Julie has ideas of grandeur, mistakenly having married a haulage contractor who turned out to be a mere lorry driver. Her adultery led to the divorce.
The play opens with a miserable Clive agonising over his wife having left him with the children six months earlier. He has been persuaded by Malcolm, never married, to forget about his wife Jackie and have a night with a lady at the singles evening.
Despite several fluffed lines during the first act by the female characters, with audible prompting, there were plenty of humorous interludes. Robin Walker (Malcolm) gave a convincing performance of an apparently confident womaniser who is not quite what he seems, with Tania Todd (Liz) expressively providing his nemesis, with a surprising twist at the end.
Mark Hollidge as Clive, provided a wonderful bumbling, nervous and well-timed performance, with Nicola Clift (Julie) mistakenly believing him to be a doctor. On the whole Julie's performance was sound but would have been improved if she had directed her eyes less to the audience and more towards Clive.
There were many moments of audience laughter but the funniest was when gold digging Julie, looking at a photo of Clive's family, asks 'is that your house?' only to be dashed with the reply 'oh no, that was taken at Chatsworth'!
The denouement came after several twists and turns, ending on a hopeful note, leaving the characters' futures open to various possibilities.
Margot Rohan, Orpington Community