THEY'VE done it again. Riverside Drama Company have given their audiences aching ribs. Aching that is, with laughter, with their two one act plays, performed last Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the Chatsworth Centre in the Devonshire Suite with the proceeds going to the Phoenix Fund.

The first play, The Droitwich Discovery by Nick Warburton, was about four Shakespeare enthusiasts, finding themselves trying to get into a dusty attic, in a house in Droitwicb, where they had been told that the Bard had lived when he was ten-years-old. They forced open the door and in doing so knocked over a load of boxes. 

George believes they've been had. Karen wants to know how the boxes-came to be behind the door? A voice from an old wardrobe says: " I put them there."

Dilly screams: "It's a ghost and has hysterics, when out of the wardrobe springs the Bard himself. Now calm, they all want to talk to him, did he really write all his plays here in this attic? etc. Well he'd got the original scripts. Then he went into a black mood, said he was doing well, till Will pinched them. Who are you then, they asked: "I'm his brother Terry! I wrote 'Night' it flopped, re-wrote it eleven times then Will wrote it the twelfth time and it was a hit. He pinched all my plays, even changed the titles, my favourite was Kevin and Juliet.

The confusion got worse when Terry told them about all his plays, that included The Merry Tarts of Windsor, A Lot of Fuss About Very Little and the Estate Agent of Venice. 

A very different and extremely funny play. The fantastic cast were; Dilly, Donna Chinn, George, Bob Baron, Olive, Amy Hall, Karen, Sylvia Holmes, Mrs Craddock, Maggie Millington and Terry, Martin Holtom. Director, Paul Norris. 

After the break came Albert by Richard Harris. This really was a comedy of misunderstandings.....Karin, writing home to mum, saying how happy she was to be an au pair working in England for an Italian couple. In reality, she was fed up, could not speak a word of English or Italian. She was from Finland. 

Along comes her employer's brother Nico who can only speak Italian. So to communicate, they try to mime what they mean.... a bit like Give us a Clue. He's desperate for the loo, but doesn't know where the toilet is, she misunderstands and gives him a drink. 

This play is full of these hilarious situations and the confusion gets worse when Albert arrives, the only English person. He just doesn't understand a thing and when he hears a baby cry, he, quite wrongly, assumes it's his.

Nico goes mad, his family honour is at stake. They fight, Nico shoots poor old Albert, then full of remorse, shoots himself, as Karin comes in with mugs of tea. Well, she thought that was what they wanted. 

Hilarious from start to finish. Superb cast; Donna played Karin, Paul Norris, Nico and Martin, Albert. Director Robert Osmond.

The amount raised was £250. 
By June Barker