It was with anticipation that we entered the theatre to watch Castle Hill Players first production for the year. No wonder, as the actors, crew and we the audience, have been waiting since last year to see Richard Everett’s play Entertaining Angels, which was, like so many other productions, postponed due to COVID. And an entertaining evening we had enjoying this very English bitter-comedy which included clever, funny lines but also looked at the darker side of family interactions.
The play opens with the widow Grace, on the phone, her missionary sister Ruth, mowing the lawn, Graces’s daughter Jo, helping clean up and Sarah, the potential new incumbent inspecting the vicarage. As the scene progresses, the recently deceased Bardolph, (Bardy), walks across the garden but is only seen by Grace and not by the other three ladies. This initial seemingly happy family portrait does not last long as tensions and unanswered questions soon become very apparent. Relationship complications are exposed and long hidden skeletons come tumbling out of the closet.
Each of the characters has their demons. Grace, played by Julie Mathers, initially dealing with the death of her husband but later coming to understand the complex web of the relationship with her husband and in turn having to deal with the truths revealed.
David Schad as Barty comes across as a rather quiet and gentle vicar but his actions of long ago had caused him to pull away from his wife.
Michelle Mansfield plays the potential new enthusiastic Vicar, Sarah, but uncertainties also wrack her as she gathers the courage to forge a path ahead.
Linda Young as Ruth is seemingly a tough and resilient woman who has returned after 30 years absence to explain why she left and face the consequences of exposing the past.
Jo, played by Amy Austin, is the daughter dealing with her own marital issues while trying to negotiate a path between her mother and aunt while also supporting Sarah.
These complex relationships are set up in the first Act leading to a dark and serious first scene in Act 2. Act 2 scene 2 however brings us back to a setting of hope and a future despite the hurts of the past.
The set builder and construction team are to be congratulated with a delightful picture of a house, a greenhouse and garden then down to the side of a little stream. We certainly feel we are in an English garden, heightened by the lighting effects and even accompanied by the sound of mowing.
Director Jennifer Willison, Willson has ensured we are involved in these characters lives and feel the pain as they do but also the joys when problems are addressed and relationships are mended.
ENTERTAINING ANGELS plays till 12 February at the Pavilion Theatre in the Hills Showground, Doran Drive, Castle Hill