Priory Players, an amateur theatre group based in Ossett (near Wakefield), has the pleasure presenting Michael Pertwee and John Chapman’s Holiday Snap. This is the fifth production of the Wakefield Drama Festival 2016 which is the 16th one. The comedy farce, directed by Susie Rowley, is set in the living room of a luxury time-share villa in Portugal which has been double booked unknown to the company’s representative, Commander ‘Chitto’ Chittenden (Chris Harrison). Chitto is oblivious that there are two couples, with have complicated lives, staying in the villa at the same time and it is left for the tale to reveal or confuse more.
The couples, Leslie and Eve (Chris Maddren and Vicky Birks) and Henry and Mary (Malcolm Trigg and Donna Crabtree) mistake one another for servants. There is a twist to the story when Henry’s mother-in-law, Celia (Julie Kidd), arrives at the villa. 
This leads to Henry bribing Leslie and Eve to impersonate a real couple Henry knows very well and gets his girlfriend, Mary, to act as a servant. This temporarily solves things but only for this to be met with hilarious consequences when Perky, his brother (Tim Falconer), and Kit, his wife (Gillian Shelton) arrives. To save the day a trip to the infamous curtain cupboard to escape disguised seems to do the trick.
This leads to Henry bribing Leslie and Eve to impersonate a real couple Henry knows very well and gets his girlfriend, Mary, to act as a servant. This temporarily solves things but only for this to be met with hilarious consequences when Perky, his brother (Tim Falconer), and Kit, his wife (Gillian Shelton) arrives. To save the day a trip to the infamous curtain cupboard to escape disguised seems to do the trick.
Certainly farcical and funny from the very beginning - with Chitto whose so called precision and repetition in getting the villa ‘ready’ and relying on the curtain cupboard and eventually becoming reliant on his ‘medicinal’ gin, forgetful and confused. Harrison gives a perfect portrayal of this eccentric and blinkered character whose narrow-mindedness and unawareness doesn’t help matters with regards to relationships and problem solving. The cast on the whole are excellent in contributing to the farce in entertaining and confusing the audience with the irony of the situation. Laughter and shocks abound with misnomers, innuendoes and misinterpretation of different meanings – all simply for the sake of a double booking and mistaken identities.
Priory Players have put on an excellent production of Holiday Snap and an enjoyable evening is guaranteed.
Contributed image from www.northwestend.co.uk
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