ON-CUE Review - Amateur Drama - Food for Thought - Two Plays by Gillian Plowman

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FOOD FOR THOUGHT
(Me and my Friend and Passion's Slave)
Purbeck Players
Purbeck Arts Centre
Swanage
July 2002

A TREK over to Swanage after a particularly traumatic day was something I could well have done without, but the warm welcome from the Players at their delightfully intimate new venue, plus supper and two superb one-act plays made for a most enjoyable evening.
The title was particularly apt, and not just for the excellent cottage pie and chocolate brownies. Both plays explored awkward social situations and were extremely thought-provoking, thanks to the skilled performances of everyone on stage.
Gillian Plowman’s Me and My Friend, directed by Pat Jones, was set in a bedsit shared by two ex-institutionalised ladies (Jean Rickard and Gina Lewis) whose grip on reality is, at best, tenuous. Their quirky behaviour and emotional outbursts that went a long way towards explaining their present circumstances were by turns funny and deeply moving.
Jean Rickard turned director for Passion’s Slave, by the same playwright. In this excellent play a Big Issue seller (Louise Wall) is brought home by do-gooder Dorcas (Pauline Windle), who lives with her brother Vincent (Simon Wells), a middle-aged man with learning difficulties. His friend Sholto (Rob Diment-Davies) and journalist Kate (Trish Leyton) further complicate the issue as the trio learn to live with each other.

Linda Kirkman
Courtesy of the Bournemouth Daily Echo