Salisbury Playhouse – until 30 June.
Reviewed by Nicky Wyatt
3***
It’s all about the Whisky!!
Allow yourself to be transported back to the 1940’s for this comic tale, which combines the Osiris Players with a real life shipwreck.
Just imagine living on one of two small islands Little and Great Todday. The islands are divided one a protestant and one a catholic separated by The Coolish, the one thing both have in common is their love of Whisky. But there is a war on and supplies have run out no boats are coming with new stocks and the beer has almost run dry too!
The islanders are trying to go about their lives and even plan a couple of weddings but they really do miss the Whisky.
Lady luck was on their side though when there is a shipwreck off the coast with no less that 50,000 bottles on board, all their Christmases have come at once it seems, they just have to get it and avoid the excise men.
Throughout this show I had to keep reminding myself it was set in the 1940’s, when you remember that it’s easy to see the talent that the seven actresses on stage have. Each of them has multiple roles and are rarely off stage. They are all portraying different characters the majority of which are male. I did struggle with some of the accents if I’m honest which at times made it hard to follow.
The scene changes are fun because it’s the cast that are acting them out , I think the best one for me was Paul Waggett( Isabel Ford) driving Fred Odd(Shuna Snow).
Stand out for me was (Sally Armstrong) as Father Macalister she was fab in all her characters. A perfect narrator as very easy to understand unlike some of the others with their accents.
It wasn’t the laugh out loud comedy I was expecting , it felt as dated as it is, more Dad’s Army meets the Village Players. However the real pleasure in this show is the skill of the actresses to pull off so many characters.