TWO contrasting comic capers kept a large first night audience thoroughly entertained at St Osmund's School Hall last night.

Maria Lee starred in the production's first tale as Emma Lovelock, the feisty owner of a seedy dating agency about to get its comeuppance from an investigative journalist.

Andrew Catterall also gave a confident performance as lonely tabloid hack David Murray alongside Mrs Lovelock's boozy husband Jonathan, well played by Arthur Taylor.

But more laughs were reserved for the second show of the evening - "A Jolly Sinister Jape" - set in the 1920s.

Arthur Taylor re-emerged to give a strong portrayal of toffee-nosed Bernard Trubshaw - one of four well-to-do folk trapped in a stranger's house on a stormy night.

The laughs came thick and fast as the pretentious foursome feared a killer was on the loose.

But the biggest surprise of all was saved until "Fatty" Parsons, strongly portrayed by Angela Gorton, revealed she wasn't quite so weighty after all...

Despite a few fluffed first night lines, loud applause from the audience at the end of the show indicated this amateur production had been well received. Paul Broster

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.