Wellington Theatre Company presented the fabulously funny The Lying Kind by Anthony Neilson for the fifth night of the 2017 Easter Festival of Full-length Plays. Neilson’s black farce is very challenging and has been alluded to as pythonesque with its surreal tone mixed with its exaggerated comic characteristics.

The play begins with two gormless policemen, Gobbel (Matty Richardson) and Blunt (Dave Beddows), being tasked with informing an elderly couple, Garson (Ali Fear) and Balthasar (Ben Branson), of their daughter Carol’s death. Throughout the play the duo debate whether or not to deliver the unpalatable truth of Carol’s death leading to misunderstandings with a paedophile-hunting mother, Gronya (Laura Delves), Reverend Shady (Joseph Maclean) and a teenage neighbour, also coincidentally called Carol (Victoria Cooper). There are constant plot twists along the way, including a dead dog, insanity and heart attacks, which all make for a rather dark, but enjoyable comic farce.

Richardson’s Gobbel and Beddows’ Blunt worked excellently as a comic duo throughout the performance, both with great delivery and comic acting, as well as having authentic police costume. Richardson also had a brilliant ability to create humour out of physical actions, especially in the situation of stuffing the unconscious reverend into the cupboard. Delves’ Gronya had a solid presence on the stage with a strong posture and characterisation, but at times the intensity could have been lowered slightly. Fear and Branson playing the elderly couple were aged up well and both got a wonderful response from the audience with Branson’s comical shuffle and Fear’s humorous trolley sounds. Maclean’s Reverend also received a great reaction, specifically when his underwear was revealed. Young Carol, played by Cooper, had very effective and believable characterisation with some lovely, subtle comic moments.

There were many strong features as an acting team, they had quick and snappy pick up of cues which is a very important aspect of any comedy. Perhaps, the pace could have been quickened at times to heighten the comic impact. But all the team members worked well together and there were many good examples of physical and slapstick comedy.

The opening stage design was executed well with the front door showing distress to show the bad neighbourhood location and there was a lovely use of an on stage street lamp that added to the authenticity.

Adjudicator Robert Meadows said the following statement about the Wellington Theatre Company’s performance: “There were successful moments of slapstick humour and quick fire delivery of the writer’s gags. This was an ambitious choice of farce.”

There was much to enjoy about Wellington Theatre Company’s production, the strong team effectively brought out all the absurd comedy of the play, really capturing the spirit of the writer’s work making for another successful and very entertaining night of the 2017 Easter Festival of Full-length Plays.

• Megan Rossiter, MADF Roving Reporter