Reviews of Local News

"A superb evening and I loved it!"

The reviewer began the article with a detailed synopsis of the plot and concluded with the following......

St Nicolas players captured my heart, senses and humour. I do believe they had a plan! It worked. The set was fantastic spilt into three sections, the press office, the police station and the pub (where all good plans are hatched) lighting and sound effects were pretty amazing. All of which need to work smoothly otherwise spilt stages won’t work this one did to perfection.

Sound tracks were used throughout such as ‘Nine till Five’ Careless Whisper’ and the classic ‘Jump’ by Van Halen for the chase scene, which was staged off stage, an absolutely brilliant piece of direction.All the actors and actresses gelled together so well in their respective groups, I came close to believing I lived in the same town!! Pub landlady Noreen (May Daniels) and hubby Wilfred (George Ogden) a classic comic duo.

Police constable Charlie (Jon Blundell) and 'Press hound' Richard (Jonathan Tibbs) were matchless, expressive, their comic timing was excellent. The guys were very reminiscent of that wonderful trio, Will Hay, Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt. And it has to be said Jonathan Tibbs has the Graham Moffatt character (full of great ideas but thwarted at the last minute) off to a tee!

St. Nicolas Players might not be able to crack a safe but they certainly cracked this production. A superb evening and I loved it!

June Atkins

2. review by John Baker reporting in the Spalding Guardian

"...capable acting...witty script..."

Interesting premise, capable acting, and at times a witty script ensured a successful St Nicolas Players production of "Local News" at the South Holland Centre.

Tired of investigating crimes such as badger attacks, branded "the biggest waste of time since the Pied Piper was put on the sex offenders' list", police in the sleepy west country town of Taviscombe plan a heist that they will foil themselves to become national heroes.

Unbeknown to them, the local press, tired of writing about badger attacks, plan an identical heist.

Inevitably the two groups, spearheaded by world-weary patriarchs in journalist Rufas, played by Nick Fletcher, and Jed Laxton's Inspector Lennox, collide and chaos ensues.

Instead of taking the story down the potential route of political satire in the vein of Drop the Dead Donkey, Sean Dooley's play takes a more slapstick approach to the subject matter.

The police and press characters mirror each other almost identically, with the two leaders being surrounded by dim but lovable characters and work experience students who are inevitably caught in the scheming.

Jed Lawton provided some of the play's best moments with an amusingly deadpan delivery, however counterpart Nick Fletcher's character Rufus was funnier as the jaded cynic at the beginning of the play than the excitable plotter at the end.

The transition between the two sides was handled well by May Daniels as bolshy landlady Noreen, whose freind Isobel is the lynchpin to the heist plans.

Jon Blundell deserves a mention simply for being the only person using a west country accent, which made the most mundane line hilarious.

While the build-up managed to maintain my interest, I was not expecting much from the climax, but was pleasantly surprised by the slowmotion heist in the front row to the tune of Van Halen's "Jump".

For an amateur production, this was a good effort from first time director Heather Dickinson and one that was warmly received by the audience.

The cast got a surprise when author Sean Dooley made the trip from Cambridge to join the crew for the celebratory drink and presentation event.

Sean said "I really enjoyed watching the St Nicolas Players' superb performance of the play - it was really enthusiatic and professional."

John Baker