one4review | On 09, Aug 2022

Brenda is a couples’ counsellor. She spends her life encouraging husbands and wives to open up about their relationship, while keeping tight lipped about her own.  With the death of her beloved dog Toby, and a chance meeting with bubbly Nita, Brenda’s life is about to change forever.

The play follows Brenda’s transformation, in tandem with the counselling of Charlie and Apple’s relationship (Russell Bentley and Letty Butler both in fine form) and it’s during these sessions that the play is at its best. There are a few good jokes, but the humour is on the whole very gentle, which I didn’t expect from a piece written by Jon Canter and directed by Paul Schlesinger. The play ends on a note of indecisiveness and that reflects my overall feeling about the play. It was a perfectly nice hour of gentle comedy, well acted by the ensemble, but I would have liked a bit more bite to the humour and an ending that didn’t leave me slightly bemused.

***

Reviewed by Rona

Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose (Doonstairs)

18.00 (1hr)

Until 28th