Sometimes it’s hard to be a woman

After many rejections, shy divorced statistician and aspiring novelist Leonard decided to enter his novel under the pseudonym Myrtle Banbury into a competition mounted by a feminist publishing house Love is All Around, for women by women and he won. So what did he do when the editor decided she wanted to meet him face to face to discuss terms?

The answer, with the lead character dressing up in drag, descended into complete farce and unleashed a very complicated and funny chain of events.

Could he convince her that he was a woman and could he trust his roguish father and streetwise daughter who eventually became his ‘partners in crime’.

All was revealed in Compton Players’ highly enjoyable production of Nobody’s Perfect by Simon Williams.

A small but balanced cast worked hard, and succeeded in getting the laughs, and director Eric Saxton must have been pleased.

As Leonard, Nick Roberts handled his huge role impressively and displayed a gift for comic timing (particularly when he was disguised as Myrtle Banbury) and Mary Warrington gave us a well-drawn character who we could really warm to.

Gus, Leonard’s father, is the Don Juan of the local day centre, (and not averse to a spot of karaoke) and H Connolly brought out all the incorrigible but charming elements of this character.

Finally, in a debut performance with the Compton Players, was Naomi Read as Dee-Dee, Leonard’s daughter. This was an excellent, natural and well-acted performance.

A good set, lighting cues and music complemented the strong cast. A frantic scene at the end involving telephones and a door entry system was handled particularly well.

With all the ingredients of disguise deception and subterfuge, the resulting comedy and happy ending, this was another success for Compton Players, who are celebrating their diamond jubilee next year with a production of Macbeth in the autumn.

TREVOR DOBSON