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Dinner Theatre Evening, St Ives Players, St Leonards & St Ives Village Hall.

THIS group performs just one event each year to raise money for St Ives Pre and First Schools – in 2007 they made £2000 to buy extra equipment for pupils – and the evening consisted of three one-act plays with a three-course meal.

Should I be reviewing the meal too? Well, probably not, so let’s just say that sausage and mash never tasted so good, and it was all served quickly and efficiently, though it probably wasn’t a good idea to have the second play while people were still eating, as the noise was a little distracting.

With the exception of Trevor Hampshaw, who with his wife Wendy was co-director, I had never come across these performers in any other amateur group, yet if there was a league table they would be well up in it.

All three plays – The Worst Day of My Life, Joining the Club and Last Panto in Little Grimley – were well directed, extremely funny and had some cracking characterisations. The latter play suffered just a little when some of its cast corpsed and engaged in repartee with the audience, but even that somehow fitted in with the happy atmosphere of this thoroughly enjoyable evening.

Linda Kirkman

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