Columnist's comeuppance (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Columnist's comeuppance

8:48am Saturday 30th January 2010

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Ben Elton grew very rich on the public's appreciation of his hectoring, in-your-face style of stand-up comedy.

But he was more than just a comedian. He was, and is, a very shrewd observer of human behaviour and patrons of the Wharf Theatre in Devizes have the chance to see his 1991 West End hit, Silly Cow.

The play is about a tabloid columnist called Doris Wallis who specialises in vitriolic attacks on soap actors and other showbiz "celebs".

We meet her on the day she is going to court to answer charges of defamation brought by a soap actress who did not take kindly to being told she wasn't able to act.

To say more about the plot would be unfair as the second half revelations come thick and fast and spiral upwards to heights of hilarity.

Leave it to say that David Thompson's production, on until next Saturday, has much to commend it.

Primarily, there are excellent performances from a talented cast. As Doris herself, Tina Duffin commands the stage as the loud, brassy and foul-mouthed columnist and actually manages to engage our sympathy for the woman who admits, in her earlier days as a reporter, longing for a bomb to go off to grab her a front-page lead.

Almost as endearing is Peter Assirati's slimy editor, Sidney. You can almost see the Brylcreem dripping onto the stage. Then there is Helen Wuscher's wonderfully mousy PA Peggy, Paul Morgan's relentlessly prissy accountant, Douglas and Kevin Smith as Doris's downmarket "toy boy" Eduardo.

Bob Gutherson's superb penthouse flat set and Paul Snook's effective lighting make for a challenging, though entertaining evening.

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