Review: Entertaining Angels at Ilkley Playhouse

IN the depths of our winter with snowy spells, icy paths and howling gales, it was delightful to see revealed, on the stage at Ilkley Playhouse, a sunny garden with lush grass, flowering borders and a greenhouse and completed with the sounds of birdsong and a rippling stream. Entertaining Angels by Richard Everett is a truly charming piece in which the comedy is beautifully offset by elements of tragedy and is handled wonderfully by director Julia O’Keefe’s superb cast.

Grace, played commandingly and very movingly by Gilly Rogers, is the recent widow of a much loved vicar. Her pain is palpable but her inability to let go is both recognisable and comical. Constantly talking to her dearly departed husband Bardolph, (John Wise) it comes as no surprise when he appears in the flesh. A combination of both conversation and reminiscence, Grace plays out her feelings and looks for a form, perhaps of ‘closure’.

Dealing admirably with both her own grief and her mother’s, is the couple’s only child Jo, a psycho-therapist. Charlotte Calvert shows sensitivity and great control and is the lynchpin of the play, the constant voice of sense and reason. Stepping into this scene, after a very lengthy absence in Africa, is Grace’s missionary sister Ruth. Seemingly the archetypal ‘eccentric- but- saintly’ do-gooder, Ruth, played with quirky charm by Jay Cundell-Walker, has a confession to make that will change dramatically the emotions of the family.

Art imitates life when in a situation where the house goes with a job, poor Grace has to deal with the arrival of the new vicar who is keen to measure for curtains and plan the fish pond. This new vicar, played beautifully by Vani Midgely, brings a new dimension to both the parish and the play as well as rather unexpected issues and concerns of her own.

This is a thought provoking and compelling play which may well make you cry as well as laugh-out-loud. And if that isn’t reason enough to want to see it, then go simply to enjoy David Keighley’s sun-soaked set and the pleasurable thought of an afternoon tea on the lawn at the vicarage.

It runs at Ilkley Playhouse until January 28.

*Ilkley Playhouse will be hosting a performance of Entertaining Angels on Friday, January 20 that will be accompanied by British Sign Language (BSL). This is to aid the appreciation of the play for people with hearing impairments. The BSL support is in addition to the usual hearing loop.

by Becky Carter