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Fur Coat and No Knickers

by Mike "The Rochdale Cowboy" Harding

Directed by Kim Gillespie

This outrageous farce centres around the wedding of Deirdre Ollerenshaw and Mark Greenhalgh. The play was first performed at the Oldham Coliseum in 1980 and has had 3 national tours since then. The play has a cast of 15+ and is a worthy follow up to our first Pro/Am production this year of Cold Comfort Farm in association with the Garrick Rep Company.

The fun begins on Mark's stag night, which almost ends in disaster when Mark, is left much the worse for wear chained to a lamp post with a blow up doll "borrowed" from a night club. The wedding day itself turns out to be a disaster too, with half the guests (including the priest) suffering from blinding hangovers and the play ends in hilarious chaos at the reception.

Fur Coat and No Knickers ran from 31 March - 4 April 2009 in the main auditorium and was a huge critical and financial success.

 

 

 

Review for FUR COAT AND NO KNICKERS
Birmingham Mail on Friday 3rd April, reviewer Roger Clarke
  
Harding comedy's a real fun romp
 
FUR COAT AND NO KNICKERS
Lichfield Garrick Rep
 
Lichfield Garrick Reps' collaboration with Lichfield Players results in an enthusiastic production of Mike Harding's Lancashire comedy.
 
The play is full of lanky sayings, ancient jokes and stereotypes and the cast are obviously enjoying themselves and taking the audience along.
 
Deidre Ollerenshawe (Victoria Wilkinson) is hoping to better herself with marriage to car magnate's son Mark Greenhalgh (Mark Grady) despite her family which includes facist overseer dad (Chris Stanley), Marxist poet brother Peter (Sam Millard) and randy granddad (Barry Atchison).
 
Her mother Edith (Ruth Hawkins) and brother Kevin (Richard Loosemore) seem normal by comparison, while Mark's dad Ronald (Harry Goss), a councillor, has a solid foundation in graft and corruption and mum Muriel (Gina Martin) has climbed to the top with plenty of horizontal stops on the way.
 
Add a drunken stag night, shotgun, blow up doll, wedding with the priest (Ian Davies) still smashed from the strip club the night before and fairytale wedding this ain't.
 
It's a fun romp with the amateurs giving the three pros a fair run for their money in an excellent pro-am production. It runs until tomorrow.
 
VERDICT **** (four out of five stars)