A comedy by Donald Churchill and Peter Yeldham ...

Directed by Margaret Blackmore

December 3rd to December 8th 2007

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Synopsis

Fun, laughter and... tax evasion?

Louth Playgoers got off to a great start this season with a hat-trick of successful and very different murder mysteries. So, to follow it up, they are bringing a comedy to town, which promises full-on fun from beginning to end.

My Friend Miss Flint will have you rocking with laughter as the characters try to wriggle their way out of a rather tricky situation. If you thought income tax could never have a lighter side, this play might just change your mind.

Tom Lambert, botanist and TV gardening personality, receives a call one morning from the Inland Revenue enquiring about a large amount of unpaid tax and his public relations consultant Miss Joanna Flint. This is the first time he has heard of the lady!

Tom Lambert is at the top of his tree - a successful TV horticulturalist who is paid very handsomely for his green fingers. But, when it comes to managing his cash, it's ex-wife and accountant Sarah who gets her hands dirty. OK, it wasn't the perfect marriage, but it's still the perfect business partnership. That is, until Miss Flint, gets involved.

For Tom, everything in the garden is rosy - or Lucy on this occasion - when Sarah arrives on the doorstep of his riverside bachelor pad, to find a perky and very attractive young lady dressing to leave. Sarah is about to break some news that will definitely shake Tom's tree, but is interrupted by the arrival of Mr Dodds, who has come with some rather searching enquiries regarding Tom's tax returns. Tom's name is mud with the Inland Revenue.

Albert, his part-time char person, part-time entertainer and full-time dodgy geezer, tries to help his boss out of the hole he's in, but just ends up digging it deeper.

The words 'rock' and 'hard place' spring to mind and Miss Flint is the only one who can rescue the situation. So Sarah and Tom scheme to find a way to bring her to account, quite literally. After all, it was all her fault in the first place, wasn't it? Or was it? Find out for yourself!"

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Cast (in order of appearance)

Production Team

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Setting

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Acknowledgements:

The director would like to thank:

...... "KRN House Plants" of Fotherby for allowing them to use their greenhouses for photographs,
...... "Wood World" of Holton-le-Clay for the loan of furniture,
...... "Style" for the loan of furniture,
...... "Pennells Garden Centre".

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Who's who.........

Richard Noble		Richard is a local business man and has appeared for Playgoers in "How the Other half Loves", "Rise and Fall of Little Voice", "Murder in Mind", "It Runs in the Family", "Relatively Speaking", "You're Only Young Twice" and "Party Piece".
Louise Bates	Before coming to Louth, Louise acted with the Bolsover Drama Group, appearing in "Annie get your Gun", "Showboat", "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Aladdin". She moved to Louth a few years ago after having undertaken a B.A. course in Theatre Studies in Huddersfield. She works as an "Expressive Arts" teacher at a local school and this play is her debut on the Playgoers stage in a play having previously appeared in the musical "Kiss me Kate".
Bruce Bourquin		Bruce is a retired Bank Manager from the south of England. He moved to Louth a few years ago having been a keen participant in theatre activities for many years. He has appeared for Playgoers in "Only when I laugh", "Woman in White", "Great Expectations" and "Present Laughter". He made his direcorial debut for Playgoers with "Visiting Hour" after being assistant director on "Nobod's Perfect".
Janet West	Janet joined Playgoers in 1964 and has been a regular performer in a wide variety of productions including musicals such as "Kiss me Kate", "Hello Dolly", and "South Pacific"; pantomimes such as "Jack and the Beanstalk", "Cinderella" and "Mother Goose"; and plays such as "A Murder is Announced", "How the Other Half Loves" and the N.O.D.A. award winning "I'll be Back Before Midnight".
Jamie Smith		Jamie made his Playgoers debut in "Private Lives" in the very last play in the old theatre before Playgoers moved to their new home at the Riverhead Theatre. Since then he has appeared in the musicals "Camelot" as King Arthur and "Kiss me Kate". His play appearances have been in "Memory of Water", "Sandcastles", "Woman in White", "Present Laughter", "Nobody's Perfect" and "Noised Off". He also appeared in "Deep Blue Sea" for a group called "The Ad-Hoc Players".
Heather Smith	Heather's first appearance for Playgoers was in the chorus of "Camelot". She has since been involved in many musicals and plays including "Stepping Out".

The cast in rehearsals

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Reviews

The Funny Thing About Tax Evasion… Playgoers’ New Comedy

Have you noticed that the words “tax return” sometimes have a very funny effect on people? They certainly do in this crazy comedy, “My Friend Miss Flint”, where tax evasion triggers identity crisis. There are people who turn out to be two people, others who are actually different people, someone who’s no-one, and a pretty young woman who appears to be…anybody’s.

It sounds confusing, but it certainly makes for an entertaining plot. Playwrights Churchill and Yeldham feed you a couple of “gives-away” at the start of the play to get things moving along nicely, then send you twisting and turning through the storyline, saving one or two surprises till the end.

“My Friend Miss Flint” successfully draws on the funnier side of what some might call a “necessary evil”, with the help of a well-seasoned Playgoers’ cast, crew and director Margaret Blackmore, ably assisted by Sue Soper.

Tom Lambert is a TV horticulturalist, a gardener made good. Richard Noble injects vitality into the role of a contented middle-aged ladies’ man who gets progressively more worried as his unwitting tax error comes to light. Poor Tom just wants to enjoy the fruits of his labour, but there are women in his life who are going to upset the applecart, including one Miss Flint. The first female to appear on the scene is the sparky young Lucy played by the vivacious Louise Bates who turns in a good character performance in this, her Playgoers’ stage début.

Janet West is beautifully in control as the ex-wife and accountant with expensive tastes, Sarah, who definitely calls the tune to which poor Tom has no choice but to dance. If her plan succeeds, they are both out of the compost, but they reckon without Albert the cockney part-time char who lands them right in it. Bruce Bourquin is startlingly believable as the mature “wide boy”, ducking and diving between the hoover, the bookies and the local pub.

Representation from the tax office arrives early on in the shape of Mr Dodds, arguably Jamie Smith’s best performance since he played Stan in “Sand Castles”. Appearance, body language, facial expression and delivery all contribute with measured subtlety to the taxman’s comedic persona. Questions - about who really is who - are answered one by one throughout the play, with Heather Smith as C.P. Lens appearing in a pivotal role towards the end of the play to finish the job nicely.

“My Friend Miss Flint” is light-hearted fun from beginning to end with lots of laughs and surprises. A great evening’s entertainment.

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Grimsby Telegraph
04^th December 2007

DON'T TRY AND DODGE OUT OF SEEING THIS ONE.

Waking up one Friday morning to find a pile of empty beer cans on his living room floor, and a strange woman in his bed, a hangover is the least of Tom Lambert's problems. For, unbeknownst to him, his day is about to get a lot worse; the TV botany expert is about to become embroiled in a fraud scandal fit to rival that of the Labour Party.

My Friend Miss Flint, which began its week-long run at Louth Playgoers Riverhead Theatre last night, sees Tom and his motley crew of friends attempt to dodge a little more than their taxes in a tale of intrigue and deception - all centred around a woman called Joanna Flint. Miss Flint has been a very naughty girl indeed: earning cash left, right and centre for a multitude of services and skills, and neglecting to make a single contribution to Her Majesty's Inland Revenue. There's a great number of people who would very much like to speak to Miss Flint, Tom included, a task which would be much easier to achieve if it were not for the fact that Miss Joanna Flint does not exist.

Here is where the fun begins. As the ever-honest Tom attempts to extract himself from the tangled web of lies surrounding him, various people arrive to help him concoct some more.

Enter the devious - and ever-so-slightly hopeless - Sarah, Tom's accountant and estranged wife, sensitively played by Janet West, who is on hand with some shocking revelations.

Meanwhile affable cleaner and part-time entertainer Albert, played by Bruce Bourquin, sees fit to drink all of Tom's booze amid the crisis.

Anyone who has ever had to retrieve their underpants from the top of a trellis will sympathise with Lucy Napier, a market researcher and wannabe art student with a soft spot for older men, played by Louise Bates with a wicked glint in her eye.

And amidst the chaos, Jamie Smith's turn as tax office bureaucrat Gilbert Dodds is almost reminiscent of Eric Morecambe, in that he can be funny just by being there.

The question is, will the gang be able to get their stories straight in time for the arrival of tax inspector C.P. Lens, played by Heather Smith?

Special mention must go to Richard Noble as the bumbling Tom, teetering ever closer on the brink of senility as he is sucked into a world of double-cross and skullduggery.

For me, the impromptu relationship (let's call it that) between Tom and the garrulous Ms Napier seems a tad unlikely, and a couple of the female performances would benefit from a confidence boost.

However, the production is in all a finely-crafted piece of work; from the comic timing of its cast, to the scenery in which every attention to detail is paid.

Sharon Baker

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Louth Leader
4^th December 2007