Midsummer Mink

Reporter: Colin Meredith
Date online: 12/06/2008

Set in the sixties, the audience were taken on a memorable journey back in time when half a crown would buy you a good night out and a fur coat worth twenty five quid was certainly worth having. This Peter Coke play, produced by Lynda Kent, is one of a series concerning the activities of a group of senior citizens who, having little else to do, turn, in their dotage, to a life of crime.

The group, currently being involved in the 'tin-rattling' activities is support of their favourite charities - and doing pretty poorly - become inadvertently involved in a fur coat racket. This seems like an ideal opportunity to boost their charitable income and it is seized upon avidly by the leader of the group, Brigadier Albert Rayne, played by the commanding Ian Mansfield who runs the operation with military precision.

He is assisted by a clutch of upper-class ladies, namely Lady Alice Miller, played by the excellent Dorothy Kenny, and an equally impressive Mavis Shellard as Dame Beatrice Appleby. The rest of the team comprised of Miss Nanette Parry, played by Barbara Fielden, and the neurotic Miss Elizabeth Hatfield played by the frenetic Susan Howarth.

The romantic element is shouldered by Joanne Frost as Lily Thompson and her latest boyfriend, Ted, played by Andy McKay, who, much to the confusion of the gang, happens to be the local policeman.

The villain of the piece, who mistakenly delivered the first package of furs to the gang was the smooth Irish villain convincingly played by Colin Thompson. Brief appearances by a very elegant Madame Chambert, a fur dealer, and the inevitable bumbling Detective Inspector played respectively by Molly Leach and Jennifer Durrans brought the play to its final conclusion.

An excellent set and an abundance of furs which helped the farcical nature of the plot move along, completed an evening which was to the expected St Anne's Players high standard.

Midsummer Mink
St Ann's Players
Parish Hall, Belfield