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NOBODY'S PERFECT
New Forest Players
Performing Arts Centre
Ballard School, New Milton
November 2005

WHEN an actor with playwrights for parents turns to playwriting himself, you can be certain that he knows a thing or two about his craft. So it is perhaps no surprise that this Simon Williams comedy is brilliantly constructed, with fully rounded & highly believable characters. And this production, expertly directed by Helen Davison, is a real heart-warming joy.
The story centres round shy, divorced statistician Leonard (John Tickner, displaying a great gift for comic timing), whose novel has won a competition mounted by a London publishing house. The trouble is, he has written it as a woman, Myrtle Banbury, and the editor, Harriet (a superb, thoroughly natural Carol Catton), wants to meet her.
Since neither Leonard’s father, Gus (Adam Ogilvie in fine form), nor his daughter, Dee-Dee (Hayleigh Birks, who is surely a star in the making), is in on the act, everything can only descend into complete farce when Myrtle actually makes an appearance.
An excellent, realistic set, great props and costumes and split-second timing from all concerned ensures that the laughs come thick and fast, and the denouement almost had us standing up and cheering as we wiped away a tear or two. Just the thing to cheer up a damp autumn night.

Linda Kirkman
Courtesy of the Bournemouth Daily Echo


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