ILMINSTER Entertainments Society staged a comic murder mystery last week in which just about every possible mishap occurred – cues were dropped, scenery fell, sound effects were scrambled and lighting was execrable – luckily this was all part of the play’s deliberate charm and plot.

This play, (one in a series by David McGilivray & Walter Zerlin Jr in which the fictional Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society attempt to put on a play with disastrous but hilarious results), is an unending stream of unfortunate mistakes and blunders through which the performers struggle to continue their performances.

The five performers assumed the roles of sixteen characters between them (the one male, Adam Smith, performing only that of the Inspector) and the muddles of quick changes added to the general air of mayhem on stage.

As a spoof of amateur dramatic society ineptitude the play, for me, was too overloaded with things going wrong for it to maintain its farcical edge.

That said, the performers were all very accomplished and were well drilled under Dave Goodall’s direction (this type of play demands choreography of sorts, with so many incidents on stage ostensibly going awry).

Irene Glynn played the role of director, and all-round bossy lead (with five roles to play), Mrs Reece with self-important aplomb; I loved, of her three roles, Maggy Goodall’s young, tennis playing Daphne and her very funny tap-dancing duet with Adam Smith’s Inspector; Lucy Monaghan, whose main role was a very good one as superior and knowing butler, Pawn, also brought good comic timing to her other roles, and Felicity Forrester, from elegance and grace as Lady Doreen moved swiftly to batty old eccentric in her other roles.

Adam Smith, playing Stage Manager brought on at the last minute to play the Inspector, was quietly bemused throughout, drifting through the chaos around, and contributing to it to no small extend.

It was a curious comedy, the gaffes overworked for my taste, but nonetheless very entertaining – and good to see such a great selection of roles for women of a certain age.

HELEN ROSE