April 2011 Production

Dangerous Corner - Review

From the Croydon Advertiser - April 2011

Review by Theo Spring

Any drama group offering a J.B. Priestley have the hard task of building the tension through wordy dialogue and here the cast had worked hard at both their lines and characterisations.

Making the most of their small stage, the set was the usual ATG triumph, particularly the windows and window seat. Gee Rook's costumes conjured up an era or elegant dining.

Business friends are meeting for dinner in the home of the Caplans with Jeremy Nicholls as the nervy and insistant Robert. Rejoining the world of drama after a long gap, Harpreet Chana created Freda Caplan as is she had never been away. Becky Warburton made Betty Whitehouse the dumb blonde with hidden depths with Gary Shaw as her husband Gordon. Both revealed their own secrets realistically. Olwen Peel has much to hide with Linda Harris making her cautious, concerned and eventually compromised as one of the key figures of the piece. But it was Ron White's enigmatic as Charles Stanton which kept the audience really guessing as he revealed each trump card, one after the other. Carolyn Screech added to the dinner party scene as the over the top Miss Mockridge, a celebrity author.

Jill Maynard's direction, with Christine Woodhead assisting, provided a very entertaining evening with a production which has, within its plot, some rather unbelievable pairings as all, of course, is not what it seems.