• Arthur Wicksteed
• Muriel Wicksteed
• Connie Wicksteed
• Dennis Wicksteed
Mrs Swabb
• Canon Throbbing
  Lady Rumpers
• Sir Percy Shorter
• Felicity Rumpers
• Mr Shanks
• Mr Purdue

• Director
• Stage Manager
• Assistant Stage Manager
• Lighting Design
• Sound Design
• Lighting Operation
• SoundOperation
• s
• Continuity
• Set design
• wardrobe
• programme/Poster design

• Tony Bannister
  Cathryn Parker
  Lindsey Holledge
  Chris Church
  Margaret kennedy
  Alan Lade
  Ann Mabey
• Adrian Bowd
• Lauren-Nicole Little
• Damian Sutton
• Christopher Wears
  

• Gini Comyns
• Gill Watson
• Cicely Ridley
• Gary English
• Alan Lade & Gini Comyns
• Brenda Clifford
• Alan Clifford & Samantha Chapman
• Mary Young & Sylvia Aston
• Gini Comyns
• The cast & Marie Mason
• alan lade

SEAFORD GAZETTE Review by Derek Watts

Alan Bennett, along with Judi Dench and David Attenborough, is now a ‘national treasure’, and his mature, graceful writing often obscures his earlier career as a wickedly funny satirist. After Forty Years On and Enjoy, two elegiac comedies about the decline of old England, Habeas Corpus is a gorgeously vulgar but densely plotted farce, an unashamed celebration of sex and the human body. Set in the Wicksteeds' house in Hove, the play revolves around a family and its acquaintances for whom instant gratification of carnal lusts is their ruling passion.

The effect is of an animated McGill postcard with the captions written by an elegant verbal stylist. The cast, a set of comic stereotypes - lecherous GP, unscaleably mountainous wife, celibate Canon, flat-chested spinster, seductive sexpot, sad hypochondriac and arrogant colonialist – are all in the grip of some overriding physical obsession: the doctor by unassuagable lust, the breastless wonder by the need for uplift, the unfired canon by the loss of virginity. Identities are mistaken, wires crossed and a falsie-fitter from  Leatherhead  stumbles into the proceedings aiming his prehensile fingers at all the wrong bosoms.

Gini Comyn’s imaginative direction captured brilliantly both the seaside postcard and the Bennett’s rapier-like digs at the permissive society. She was well-served by some beautifully-judged performances. Tony Bannister gave Arthur Wicksteed, the randy GP, a veneer of smooth professionalism barely concealing an irresistible lust. He had the most lyrical passages of the evening, expressing lonely yearnings and regret for lost youth, along with some acerbic asides. His object of desire, Felicity Rumpers, was deliciously played by Lauren Nicole-Little, whose nubile attractions also became the focus of Wicksteed’s hapless hypochondriac of a son, Dennis, played with gormless hilarity by Chris Church.

The plot was complicated by Alan Lade’s ‘thrusting young vicar’, Canon Throbbing, who managed to mix a superficial religiosity with a basic desire, as he puts it, to be ‘in the forefront of Anglican sexuality’. He is loosely engaged to the flat-chested Connie, Wicksteed’s sister, who, persuaded by the nosy, ubiquitous and bustling Mrs. Swab, the ‘lady wot-does’ [played with an arch proletarian glee by Margaret Kennedy], invests a fiver in a pair of falsies.  Lindsey Holledge brought to Connie a desperate longing for physical enhancement and her metamorphosis as a femme fatale in Act Two was a joy to behold - as was the galleon in full sail, Cathryn Parker as Muriel Wicksteed, the long-suffering wife of the Lothario physician. Up for a spot of dalliance on her own accord, she flung her considerable presence upon Mr. Shanks, the falsie-fitter [a delightful cameo from Damian Sutton] and Sir Percy Shorter, played with pompous shiftiness by Adrian Bowd.

In the midst of the farce, Bennett’s penchant for nostalgic lyricism expressed itself in the delightful closing speech from Ann Mabey’s doughty Lady Rumpers, doyenne of the Raj, Addis Ababa and all points in between, as she pictures her last days in ‘a small hotel in Eastbourne, a nightly game of whist, an old colonial lady who’ll die and not be missed’. 

The one real tragedy of the evening, Mr. Purdue [Christopher Wears], trying hard to kill himself, was studiously dismissed by these larger-than-life stereotypes – Bennett’s judicious comment on the ultimate selfishness of the permissive age.

This was a high-quality, thoroughly enjoyable production and Gini Comyns and her team are to be congratulated on bringing this comic masterpiece so vividly to the Seaford stage.

EVENING ARGUS Review by Tony Flood

Seaford Little Theatre has discovered three new stars in debutant director Gini Comyns and actors Chris Church and Lauren-Nicole Little, who help make Habeas Corpus an enjoyable romp.

Comyns injects the required pace to ensure Alan Bennett’s bawdy comedy about unrequited lust gathers in momentum without descending into pantomime, despite featuring cartoon characters.

An almost bare set means the play has to be carried by the cast and, in particular, Tony Bannister, who brilliantly captures the desires of lecherous doctor Arthur Wicksteed.

Arthur is determined to seduce attractive new patient Felicity Rumpers, delightfully played by Little, a newcomer to Seaford from the National Youth Theatre.

The pregnant Felicity decides to marry the doctor’s hypochondriac son Dennis, convincingly portrayed by Church as a wretched spotty youth who believes he has only three months to live.

Adding to the farcical fun are Cathryn Parker, as Arthur’s unfulfilled wife Muriel, Lindsey Holledge (his dowdy sister Connie), Alan Lade, as Connie’s fiancé, the sex-obsessed Canon Throbbing, and Margaret Kennedy (busybody housekeeper Mrs Swabb, with her running commentary).

The usual Brian Rix-type cases of mistaken identity come when Connie orders false breasts and Mr Shanks (Damian Sutton) from the suppliers thinks that first Muriel and then Felicity need the enhancement device tested.

Adrian Bowd is in his element as Medical Council boss Sir Percy Shorter, who catches Arthur interfering with Felicity in her underwear, while Ann Mabey and Christopher Wears give fine support.

The cast make the most of Bennett’s mocking wit and squeeze laughs from some of his weaker material, too.

SEAFORD SCENE Review by Emily-Jane Polling

The Seaford Little Theatre has struck gold once again as they brilliantly performed Alan Bennett’s racy post-card comedy ‘Habeas Corpus’ on Saturday 18th February. The Little Theatre crew have a real talent for farce, a talent which came winging through in their revival of this wickedly funny and bawdy play.

Habeas Corpus is a witty comedy about the 1970s permissive society. Set in Hove, the play revolves around the lives of the sex-obsessed middle-class. The main action of the play takes place in the household of Dr Arthur Wicksteed (Tony Bannister), a household, which, behind closed doors is not quite the respectable establishment it is thought to be...

Whilst the lustful and adulterous Doctor Wicksteed pursues his attractive patient Felicity Rumpers (Lauren-Nicole Little), his wife Muriel Wicksteed (Cathryn Parker) a off chasing and forcing her voluptuous self upon various love interests, his gormless son Dennis Wicksteed (Chris Church) becomes trapped into a love triangle of an engagement, and his sister Connie Wicksteed (Lindsey Holledge) prances around wearing fake boobs in a desperate attempt to snare a man. You could cut the sexual tension in this play with a knife as each character is just as insatiable as the last.

An endless round of trouser-dropping and sexual antics takes place throughout the play, and we are taken from one ridiculous circumstance to the next. The comedy aspect of the production is highlighted by the cast’s continual asides to the audience and through their random bursts of rhyming couplets.

Lindsey Holledge was fantastic as the shy and dowdy Connie Wicksteed. Obsessed with improving her flat chest, Connie’s attempts to attract a partner by parading around in a pair of fake breasts are absolutely hysterical. She was wonderfully witty in her portrayal of Connie and really brought the character to life. Equally Cathryn Parker was hilarious as Muriel Wicksteed. Her quest for sexual re-awakening and to pump the passion back into her life is brilliant, especially when she corners and launches herself at the unfortunate Mr Shanks (Damian Sutton) after a serious misunderstanding.

The play becomes more and more farcical by the second as the characters all end up chasing each other in a bizarre lust-fuelled circle. The farce is only broken up by the pantomime-style speeches from the gossipy narrator Mrs Swabb (Margaret Kennedy) and the failed attempts at suicide by the attention-seeking Mr Purdue (Christopher Wears).

The comic timing of the play was spot on and the entire cast were all individually brilliant. Their continued breaking of the play’s fourth wall really made the audience feel part of the action and had us laughing from start to finish. The Little Theatre have done it once again and pulled off another fantastic piece of comedy. A well-deserved round of applause to all involved.