(Darlington & Stockton Times)

Farce is possibly the most difficult of theatre genres to pull off successfully, but Gainford Drama Club made a commendable stab at it last week with a production of Rumours by Neil Simon.

Rapid-fire dialogue is the chief device by which this play rises to a sense of disaster waiting in the wings, so it was a pity on this night that the pace suffered from lapses in memory by some of the cast, occasioning frequent prompting.

But the show was far from being a disaster because the group is blessed with a core of actors who have grasped the importance of understatement — amateurs too often exaggerate mannerisms, facial expressions and accents.

Under John Robinson”s direction, characterisation was kept under control to be natural and believable in a play that presents a series of ludicrous scenarios.

If it never quite hit the heights of hilarity, there were plenty of chuckles to be had in watching the ever more frantic and implausible efforts at concealment by a group of tenth wedding anniversary partygoers whose host never actually appears — he is absent upstairs nursing a gunshot wound to his earlobe. To protect various social and political reputations — and pompous male egos — an imperative arises not to let the truth get out, even though no-one quite knows what that is.

There was a good balance between the four couples, with the men attempting to take charge while the women mainly flapped and fretted, but all were the focus of laughter at one time or another. Among them, Di Peat set a good pace in the frantic opening moments, while husband, Ken (Mike Sillars) dashed about authoritatively before coming up with his silly idea for subterfuge~ Barrington Wearmouth and Ronnie Lowery were excellent as the fond husband and wife, Earnest and Cookie, the former being especially funny in his apoplectic moments. Claire Royle was successfully stringent as the insecure Cassie, and Allan Jones held everyone”s attention superbly when he rose to the challenge of impersonating the absent host to confound Paul Illingworth”s credulous police officer.