Review: The Lying Kind performed by Meeching Amateur Dramatics at Newhaven

Set on Christmas Eve, two police constables arrive at a festive wreath-decked street door to deliver some tragic news to the household’s elderly residents.

Ed Ginn, playing the hapless Constable Gobbel, was also the director of the show this year and gave off vibes of Nick Frost in ‘Hot Fuzz’ with a deliberately anxious physical performance. Steve Darvill, playing a straighter side-kick, Constable Blunt, was exasperated with his partner’s antics but, as it transpired, was really as ineffective as his colleague.

Gronya, played by Donna Beard, appeared front of stage and became a literal ball-buster, demanding to know the location of a local sex offender that was being hunted by a parent’s pitch-fork wielding mob to protect their children. Because of the police presence she was immediately suspicious of their story, leading to many of the misunderstandings in the show.

The limited space in front of curtain for the street scene slightly hampered movement for the actors before the door was opened to the wider lounge scene where we met Jenny Humphries playing a completely out of character part – an elderly lady called Garson – in which she excelled.

Simon Fox playing the elderly husband Balthasar gave the outstanding performance of the show, with a fantastic level of expressiveness, dealing both with his confused wife and the blundering mistakes of the police officers.

The Reverend Hans Shandy, played by Keith Johnson, turned in a performance that Father Ted and his colleagues would have been proud of – and I’m rather envious of how good his legs looked in stockings and suspenders!

The show is quite lengthy, but the sold-out audience enjoyed the slapstick scenes and unlikely scenario’s that kept making the situations go from bad to worse for the show’s players.

A lost dog met a supposed sad end – but unlike the cruel Disney movies of my youth – this animal came back to life and was unharmed during the making of the production. He was so well behaved; you might well have thought he was stuffed.

Debbie Cox, in two roles, (both named Carol) found herself thrown into a chest whilst the poor Reverend ended up in a cupboard. When Gronya bursts in, the police and the clergy find themselves being made to perform a ‘Full Monty’ much to the amusement of the audience.

With one final twist, poor Balthasar meets his demise, but I hope he is revived in time for MAD’s next show in August 2023 – Telstar, about the worlds first independent record producer, Joe Meek.

Of course, all shows also rely on their supporting crew and Ray Cox, Paul Vaughn, Gary Ginn, Ken Wilson, Robert Woodbridge, Tony Gibbs, and Aimee Ginn must be congratulated.