Gateway play packs 'em in once again
Published Date:
31 October 2008
By Staff reporter
SOME things never change, among them the facts that Ulster audiences continue to love Sam Cree plays, which means full-houses where and when they are staged, writes NIALL CROZIER.
Portadown’s Gateway Theatre Group have again underlined the point, with their production of Cree’s Millie O’Kasili-directed ‘Separate Beds’ playing to packed audiences in the course of its province-wide tour which, aptly, ended on the locals’ home-town stage.
Portadown Town Hall was sold out on Friday and Saturday nights and those who turned out in support of the thespians certainly weren’t short-changed.
As with all Cree works, ‘Separate Beds’ is neither subtle nor sophisticated. But it is funny, particularly when one sees it performed so well as was the case last weekend.
Nigel Dawson (as Arthur Marshall) and Gillian McShane (as Madge Wirshall) delivered outstanding individual performances, with Graham Fenton (as painter Andy Crawford) and Elaine Hanvey (as Ivy the cleaner) highly impressive, too.
Neil Simon-penned ‘Plaza Suite’ - directed by Gillian McShane - will be the locals’ Christmas fayre, to be followed in January by ‘Robinson Crusoe’, the Gateway group’s 2008 panto offering.
If last weekend is a benchmark, both will be worth seeing.
The full article contains 209 words and appears in Portadown Times newspaper.
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Last Updated:
29 October 2008 4:42 PM
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Source:
Portadown Times
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Location:
Portadown
