Summer End – Keighley Playhouse

FOR MOST of the first act of Summer End, the latest Keighley Playhouse production, I was sniggering away at the antics of two crusty old residents of the Summer End Retirement Home.

I made a mental note that when my time comes to be incarcerated in such a place I will insist on a single room otherwise murder will be done! By me!

There was an underlying story of a possible premature despatch of the previous occupant of the shared bedroom, but this was only really addressed during the second act, when I felt the mood and pace of the play dropped alarmingly. I think I even dozed off for a few minutes.

This was no fault of the actors who gave their all – they just did not have the material to work with. The writer, Eric Chappell, is a fine sitcom writer and his finest, Rising Damp, is amongst the funniest sitcoms ever. Duty Free and Only When I Laugh were pretty good too, but judging from this play morphing a 30-minute sitcom episode to a two-hour stage play is no easy matter.

There was simply not enough material in the primary situation so he threw in a murder mystery; at least that is what it looked like to me. I sensed that it might have looked that way to the cast too.

Patricia Henny and June Driver played the intolerable residents beautifully and Rachel Wallbank and Katrina Wood were perfectly tactful and tolerant as the rest home’s staff.

Anthony Calvert as the put-upon son showed a frenzied frustration with his mother, but none of them really had enough material to get the most out of the situation, which was a pity because they and director Geoff Whiteley put everything they had into it.

Martin Carr