This was only my second summer production with WADS, mainly because I have preferred to avoid protracted commitments which might inhibit my professional acting prospects, but my lovely WADS friends made me an offer I couldn’t refuse! The plot is very straightforward, presenting the aftermath of a burglary at an isolated house, but with one of the perpetrators (although we only had his word for that) still on site; the skill, on the part of the author Eric Chappell, of whose plays the Society has now performed several (and who generally comes to watch them, as indeed he did this one, complimenting the performers afterwards), is in using the protagonist, ‘Greasy’ Spriggs (Ivan Hall) to expose the weakness of the two couples’ marriages, because of their own individual failings; there is also some useful social comment from Spriggs in the process.
My character felt very close to home, albeit an exaggeration of course, so it was actually very comfortable playing him; not that this is a normal prerequisite for an acting rôle, for me anyway (in fact, normally quite the reverse), but it was very pleasant to be able to slip into playing him, like a comfortable pair of slippers, especially for such an extended period as this. Also, it was very nice to be able to have the last laugh: literally!