What a joy to see amateur theatre at its best.
Progress Theatre’s production of Cold Comfort Farm is a hoot from start to finish as a cast of 13 – some doubling up to play different roles – do Paul Doust’s adaptation of Stella Gibbons’s novel mighty proud.
At the centre of the play is a farm full of eccentrics who are controlled by Ada Doom, a recluse who lives at the top of the farm and eats for England. She barks, she growls and talks mumbo-jumbo, but everyone bows down to her. It’s as if she is head of an occult.
But Flora Poste, a distant cousin, is determined to upset the apple cart and set Doom’s underlings free.
Flora is played quite magnificently by Mia Cresswell-Melstrom. She is the play’s hinge and she gives Flora a lovely mix of haughtiness, arrogance, self-assuredness and wit.
You can’t help but back her in her quest to loosen Doom’s grip on her family underlings, most being Starkadders (the name says a lot about them).
When the members of the farm are introduced to the posh Hawk-Monitors – of course, of Flora’s doing – the play ripples with fun. Suddenly, Harry Woodward, who initially plays an overbearing Urk, besotted with Elfine Starkadder, is transformed into the posh son of widowed Mrs Hawk-Monitor who is determined to marry her.
The contrast between the two roles couldn’t be greater, but Woodward pulls off the conversion from thicko to posho sensationally.
There are loads of other stand out performances: Misha Koshutskyy plays the farm’s playboy Seth with buckets of swagger (as well as Flora’s boyfriend): Melanie Sherwood’s Mrs Hawk-Monitor who literally goes weak at the knees when introduced to the red-hot Seth; and Juliet England’s Doom who slowly emerges from her reclusive madness.
All in all, a brilliant production directed by Jo Metcalf – and making her full length directorial debut. Greatness beckons.
This is a great start to Progress Theatre’s 80th season: other shows in the coming months include Julius Caesar, The Full Monty and The School for Scandal. A bag full of treats.
Cold Comfort Farm runs until September 12. If you live in Berkshire, and love your theatre, you won’t be disappointed. Two hours of joy and proof that Am Dram is alive and kicking.
Progress Theatre, The Mount, Christchurch Road, Reading RC1 5HL.
Photos by Richard Brown
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