Summer Vocation and Skin

Summer Vocation & Skin

The first play was a short one, Summer Vacation , a light-hearted story about the changing seasons by award-winning playwright Kathy Mead. Old Father Time (Tony Dixon) suspends the hand-over from the tired Old Year (Peter Bray) to a bright and bubbly New Year, played by 14 year-old Holly Jeffrey-Goodall because he has a problem. Summer has been dismissed because she was diabolical last year, but she must be replaced. Spring (Marilyn Hillier), Autumn (Hazel Dixon), and Winter (Pat Carter) join the interview panel as candidates for the post of Summer troop in for inspection. Ann Buckley, from the Natural Wonders Department (European Sector), puts the fear of God into everyone with her suggestion that what the world really needs is another Ice Age. David Grey, alias Drizzle, a Bolshie shop steward type horrifies them with his ideas for a dismal summer and demands for better working conditions. Daffodil, played by 8 year-old Annie Winchcombe, clinches the role with her sweet smile and charming poetry. But as the play comes to a close, with 7 year-old Freddie Colpman throwing snow at the audience it's clear all might not go as planned as Daffodil was a Snowdrop last year!

Goodworth Clatford Village Club may seem an unlikely setting for a world première but the Clatford Amateur Dramatic Society were wished every success by Liverpudlian Ros Morruzi as they became the first troupe to stage her play Skin . A comedy, with a sinister plot, the play reveals the beastly side of the beauty business. It centres on the dubious activities of handsome cosmetic surgeon Dr Foxley, played convincingly by Geoff Scard, and his erstwhile accomplice Daphne Ross (Margaret Scard). The beautiful receptionist finds she is soon expendable when the doctor needs a body donor for a new rich client. Violet Harrop, once bog cleaner now lottery millionairess, wants the top treatment and Lynn Brown undergoes dramatic surgery in her role and miraculously emerges looking exactly like Daphne Ross. Margaret Scard played her two roles brilliantly as she mastered a difficult change of accent. David Benwell and Dennis Newnham were side-splittingly funny in their roles as Judge and Brigadier demanding sexual favours from their 'naughty nursey' while the doctor is away.

Another inspired performance from Anne Blake as Valerie the beautician falls foul of a 'buy one get one free' offer and finds her new boobs don't match! The game is soon up for Dr Foxley as he returns from holiday to be arrested by Police Constable (Ann Buckley), charged with murder and marched off to jail. And the same fate befalls poor Violet. Unable to keep taking the anti-rejection pills both find their new skins peel off to reveal their former selves. But that was not all, CADS again treated their appreciative audiences by putting on two plays each night. 'We were particularly pleased to find two plays which managed to include all our members with their wide variety of age and talent, and gave the directors, myself and Sharon Colpman, the opportunity to direct without playing roles ourselves,' said Cliff Tucker CADS chairman