Our 50th anniversary season is in full swing, with rehearsals currently underway for our February production, Amanda Whittington's Ladies Down Under - a sequel to her popular comedy Ladies' Day performed here at Playhouse 2 in October 2014.
Ladies' Day followed the story of four fish-packers from Hull: Pearl, Jan, Shelley and Linda, who, by way of celebrating Pearl's forthcoming retirement, visited Royal Ascot at York only to bag themselves the half a million Tote jackpot. This bonza sequel sees them on their latest adventure to Australia, but some of the problems that plagued them as fish-packers are still, unfortunately, ever-present. Not only that, there's a bigger bombshell on the horizon, which makes them all take a step back and re-evaluate.
Integral to this play is the beauty of friendship. As in real life, friendship comes in all different shapes and sizes. Age, background, religion and many other factors that can have the capability of creating division become irrelevancies when that 'click' happens, and thankfully so, because how boring would life be if we were all the same? It's important to have people around us to offer differing opinions and experiences, as this can, if we are really lucky, help shape us into being better and more tolerant people.
Friends often come and go, this is inevitable; peoples' circumstances change, they move on, they grow up - there's a whole host of reasons why people part ways but true friendships can stand their ground and ride the storms that make up life's rich tapestry. The four women in this play illustrate this perfectly and what a lovely thing to witness and feel a part of.
So, come on, get those tickets bought and sit back and watch as Pearl, Jan, Shelley and Linda navigate their way around friendship, money, men and more scarily (for Shelley anyway) the bush!