Banbury Cross Players People by Alan Bennett Mill Arts Centre Banbury 25th - 28th April 2018

With a large cast, some of them making their BCP debut, People paints an incisive picture of the life of the aristocracy whose fortunes along with their stately homes have fallen into disrepair.

The setting is Stacpole House, situated in present day South Yorkshire, and is the ancestral home since 1465 of the Stacpole family. The current head, Dorothy, is a retired ageing model and all round girl-about-town who now needs to raise money pdq to prevent the estate literally falling about her ears.

Dorothy, impressively played by June Ronson, has two options. Donate the estate to the National Trust or sell to Bevan (Dave Robinson) a fly representative of a company who want to purchase the pile and rebuild it in the South of England.

This is the entire plot. From this simple scenario Alan Bennett constructs a two-hour theatrical feast, sometimes sad, sometimes poignant and often hilarious.

What will Dorothy do? The scene is set and it's set well. Using the entire stage the opening scene is a drawing room in a dilapidated Stacpole House with items covered in dust sheets and generally a bit of a mess. Credit must go the set crew, Richard Ashby, Chris Garret and Nik Lester who built us a convincing piece of English history and gave authenticity to our play.

Director Ray Atkinson was also on form when he chose his characters. If June Ronson was spot on as Dorothy, her erstwhile companion Iris could have come straight from Ealing Studios. Played by Brenda Williams, she gave a glorious and comic performance with her homespun philosophy and quips. The quips were mainly aimed at Dorothy's younger sister June who is an Archdeacon and wants to upload the estate onto the National Trust as soon as.

So the first act rumbles on with bickering between the sisters, interrupted by Iris who is constantly knitting a scarf for the troops. (Any troops, it doesn't matter). By the end of the run of the play, the scarf should be about 5m long.

Into the second half and rarely have I witnessed two acts of a play so different to each other.

The first hour is very wordy and a tad static. Several prompts were issued but it can be understood on the first night of the run with such huge parts, particularly Dorothy's.

The second act is full of action, comedy, farce even. Dorothy has met a former toy boy lover, Theodore, (Dave Smith) who is now producing adult films. He wants to use her house as a set for his latest film for suitable remuneration.

She doesn't seem to understand or perhaps even care what type of film it is as the crew descend on Stacpole House.

The drawing room has now been transformed into a bedroom with the help of an impressive four-poster bed. The film crew consisted of Les (Jane Ryman), Louise (Kate Groves) and d-i-y expert Bruce (Bruce Walton). He sorted many of the House's problems to make it suitable for filming, handy guy that.

Jem Turner took the role of the camp film gopher Nigel, succeeding to the point of making Alan Carr look straight.

Enter the stars of the film, the slightly reluctant young Colin (Alex Nicholls) and Brit (Hana Ayers). The pair played their racy parts well, not easy to do in an amateur stage environment. Well done to both.

There is a classic comical moment when June is showing the Bishop (Terry Gallagher) around the property and turns up in the bedroom scene at a crucial time, narrowly avoiding a very embarrassing moment.

The film is now finished; the house has been refurbished by Bruce and the location fee. Dorothy has a second meeting with Bevan who now intimates his clients have changed their mind about buying and relocating her house to sunny Wiltshire.

Dorothy is determined it won't go to the National Trust and have hoards of people traipsing through the property. Her reservations are challenged by the National Trust chappie Ralph, played by Dave Candy. Dave was a pleasure to watch, his demonstrative performance convinced the audience his was the way to go and almost had us queuing up to donate our homes in the national interest. Suffice to say all’s well in the end, much to Dorothy’s and our relief.

Another BCP success, albeit a wordy first half, but that's Alan Bennett.

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