Funny About Love
by Terence Frisby
The Caxton Players
Caxton Theatre Grimsby
4 - 11 March 2023
Rosie is concerned with saving. Saving the downtrodden, the persecuted and even saving the planet. Too busy however, to realise that her husband Piers is involved with his much younger secretary Larissa. Piers, leaves Rosie for Larissa. Rosie seeks her revenge through a passionate affair with Larissa's husband Darren, a young car thief, conspiring to commit a massive insurance fraud. This comedy is written by playwright Terence Frisby who also wrote There's A Girl in My Soup which became a blockbuster film starring Peter Sellers and Goldie Hawn.
After a life of marital stagnation, with no children to raise the couple have grown apart and after Rosie walks in and finds Piers in flagrante delicto with Larissa on his office desk, she merely dismisses Piers and seeks to get on with her life without him. She kicks him out of their marital home, but is visited by a mysterious young man who offers further insight into the affair. The young man turns out to be Larissa's husband, the hot-tempered Darren who develops and affection for Rosie which blossoms into far more. The wronged husband spies a money-making opportunity and takes it upon himself to get the ball rolling, which in turn causes untold chaos in the intertwined lives of our four characters.
The Caxton Players production boasts a a wonderfully lavish set, the classy home of Rosie and Piers and though opulent and stylish, its cold nature reflects the loss of love between the two in the childless marriage with each assuming that they were the reason they could not have children.
However, just when Piers received the happy news that Larissa is now expecting a child by him, his business crashes around him leaving him penniless and homeless. The ever-charitable Rosie allows Piers to move back home with Larissa int the spare room as she and Darren occupy the main bedroom. This is the source of much of the confusion and fun in this production, directed by Jane Stolworthy.
It is fantastic to see real-life married couple Derek and Amanda Hodges return to the Caxton stage after many years away. Their chemistry as performers is clear and they have fun sparking off against each other as the dissolute married couple. Derek Hodges is a businessman with an inflated sense of self-worth who naturally assumes it is right that a much younger woman would find him irresistible and yet refuses to acknowledge that what is good for the goose is also good for the gander and frowns upon his wife's relationship with a younger man. Its the kind of role Derek plays so well. He plays the man you want to hate brilliantly, but you still feel sympathy for his fate at the play's end.
As his estranged wife, Amanda Hodges succeeds in portraying a wife who has grown indifferent to her husband and really unsure of whether his departure is a bad thing or a good thing and avails herself to the positive side of the breakdown of the marriage. Amanda's world-weary wife, who blames herself that they cannot have children is played sensitively yet with a degree of inherent bitterness and resentment, a difficult feat to pull off but Amanda Hodges achieves it, taking the audience with her.
The role of Larissa is shared by Debbie Appleyard and Alison Stretton - after the unfortunate, enforced absence of Rachel Walton due to ill health and we wish her well. Appleyard's Rissa is deeply annoying and that is a good thing not an insult, her sickly sweet, ridiculously syrupy pet names rapidly become a liturgy of ear-piercing annoyance played to perfection. Her characterisation is fabulous. It is hard playing someone THAT annoying and Appleyard played it so well!
The role of Darren is played by relative newcomer Dane Neilson. He succeeds in bringing a deceitful, manipulative character to the stage to drive the intrigue and mayhem that is the charge that lights the fuse for much of the show's comedy. He is impetuous and fiery and is so often the spark that sets the tinder ablaze.
When the humour lands in this play it lands well, and audiences will enjoy the insanity of this twisted four-way marriage farce.
The play opens on Saturday and runs until Saturday 11 March. Performances start at 7:30pm and tickets can be purchased online at www.caxtontheatre.com or in person from Tourist Information at Grimsby Fishing Heritage Centre (card only) or Grimsby Central Hall (cash or card).
Andy Evans
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