STRETFORD based  drama group, HATS  deserve praise for their ability to tackle a difficult farce, No Sex  Please, We’re British.

 

It involves an expert back stage crew creating seven entrances and an equally expert cast who enter and exit them with immaculate timing often responding swiftly to a door buzzer which always rings at exactly the right  time.

 

The title of No Sex Please We’re British, does not, at first. refer to the relationship of the characters to one other.   It refers to a parcel of pornographic material inadvertently delivered in lieu of Scandinavian glassware to a flat above a bank.

 

Newly weds Peter and Frances Hunter have been given the apartment becayse Peter is the Sub Branch Manager and when,  like the sorcerer’s apprentice, more and more boxes of porn arrive, panic sets in driven by the fear that Peter might lose his job.

 

James Eckersley and Debbie Dickerson play the couple in a mist of confusion as they are put in disarray by a quirky bunch of other people.

 

Take Frances’ mother-in-law, Eleanor.   Lindsey Andrews plays her as an interfering snob who quickly succumbs to the attention of Roger Clayson’s Leslie Bromhead. a banking area manager.   I like the way Roger plays him straight.   That is until he gets his come-uppance near the end.   .

 

One of the funniest characters is Chris Silke’s Brian Runnicles, the bank’s Chief Cashier, whose name alone makes you laugh.   Chris plays him with elastic expression as he faces crisis after crisis.   Originally a reliable employee, he becomes a wanted man and takes us with him all the way.  Events such as hanging himself on a coat hook are run of the mill for this unfortunate character.

 

Other eccentric cast members are Adam Wright’s drugged and solicited bank auditor, Roy Eckersley’s police superintendent, and Karen Newman and Jeanette Thornley’s call girls,who all add  to the fun.

 

Farce is never easy for small drama groups to master but HATS make it work because, thanks to director Lara Daintree  they get the timing spot on. 

 

As a small society, HATS punch above their weight with this one.

 

*          No Sex Please We’re British is at St Hugh of Lincoln Parish Hall, Glastonbury Road, Stretford until March 28.   Tickets from 0161 748 5010 or email tickets@hatstheatre.org.uk.   Star rating:  * * *:* *