WILL YOU STILL LOVE ME IN THE MORNING?

Written by Dennis Spooner & Brian Clemens

Directed by Bill Green

WHAT THE PAPERS SAID...

MORNING GLORY

Take a pinch of saucy comedy, a dash of extra-marital behaviour and an extra helping of fast-paced farce and you have "Will You Still Love Me in the Morning?", an ideal vehicle for the talents of the Apex Players.

Recent shows have seen the amateur group stretching their rarely-seen straight dramas skills, but Dennis Spooner and Brian Clemens' hilarious comedy took Apex back to their roots in farce.

A real crowd-pleaser, the show kept audiences in stitches at Cumbernauld Theatre last week.  Perfect Apex material, it centred on newlyweds Celia and Jeremy (Stephanie Dodds and James Keenan), who return early from their honeymoon to find that Jeremy's bosses have both taken up his invitation to stay at his home - each bringing the other's wife.

Complications pile up as the young couple try to keep Humphrey and Sara (Alan Peebles and Carol Finlay) separated from Thelma and Peregrine (Ann Wilson and Roy White), while manic plumber Syd (Derek Green) causes chaos in the basement.

Stephanie and James were excellent as ever as the young Winthrops, with Carol and Alan cementing their reputation as an ever-watchable double act.  Ann Wilson, who as appeared in several smaller roles in previous Apex productions, was finally given a role worthy of her talents - and met the challenge magnificently.  Roy White, who made an impressive debut in Apex's "Truth, Beauty and Contact Lenses", proved his premiere performance was no fluke with another outstanding comic turn as the fastidious Peregrine.

Derek Green's outrageous turn as Syd was the final element in one of the strongest ensemble casts Apex has put together in some time.  Top marks have to go to director Bill Green and his assistand, Pamela McPhail, who put the show together with real flair, keeping some challenging action and complex staging moving along at whipcrack speed.

As the last show of Apex's current season, "Will You Still Love Me in the Morning?" can only have left audiences anxiously awaiting the team's return to the fray in October.

Cumbernauld News, May 1997