The story centres around the father, Victor Cadwallader, who uses his charm to good use and has affairs with other women. Meanwhile, Martin Worley, played by Charles McKinnon, who was also keen on Victor's wife Joan, stands by for an opportunity to take Victor's place. Victor's son, Giles, comes on the scene with his girlfriend, Shirley. But Victor is the one who charms her, not his son, and she seems quite happy to accept this situation.
As the curtain opened we were presented with a tasteful, upper middle-class drawingroom. All credit to the designers for a set which was totally convincing. The costumes were also exactly right with one notable exception. I felt that Victor Cadwallader, who is portrayed by Brian Gillespie, should have been wearing more elegant clothes to accentuate the man's charm. Perhaps a finer knit jacket might have helped. The aran jacket made one think that he'd pop out through the French windows at any moment to spray insecticide on his roses.
To be completely successful, this type of comedy has to be played very snappily and, unfortunately, the pace was sometimes a little slow, with the result that some of the play did not have as much impact on the audience as it might have had.
There were, however, some really choice moments such as the scene which takes place in the middle of the night which ends when Joan Cadwallader played by Hilda Gibson, makes a beautifully sleepy entrance, utters a few remarks to various people, then with a cryptic comment on her son Giles' parentage, falls asleep. The entire cast played that whole scene nicely and it was most amusing. A competent cast with a few brilliant performances.
Hilda Gibson struck just the right note of upper middle-class niceness in her portrayal of the mother and Charles McKinnon gave a great performance as Martin Worley. In fact, so well did he play his part from the start, that he did not need to utter a word to be amusing. All that was needed to send the audience into gales of laughter was for him to walk on stage.
The other three characters - Brian Gillespie as Victor Cadwallader, Liz Scott as Shirley Hughes and Billy Young as Giles Cadwallader - worried me a little. They all seemed to be competent actors. Each gave a convincing performance, both in movement and visually, and yet I found myself a little disappointed in their voices. They seemed a little flat.
Perhaps if an attempt had been made to "anglicise" the accents this might have helped. I feel that this kind of comedy, which depends so much on not what you say but the way that you say it, does not lend itself to West of Scotland accents.
Altogether a most amusing evening which, with just a little more effort, could have been hilarious.