WHAT a delightful evening we had at Grassington Players ‘Yorkshire Voices’. We were regaled with some first class entertainment written by the late Keith Bromley, a well liked Grassington resident. The pieces were not dissimilar in style to Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads monologues. We laughed and we cried.

The evening featured a wonderful performance from newcomer Carole Charlton, daughter of author Keith Bromley. The piece had originally been written for her 30 years ago, but, not considering herself a Thespian, she had never performed it. Her portrayal of a long suffering mother of four was delivered skilfully and we certainly hope to see more of her.

In ‘The Basque.’ Andrew Armstrong played an avid Welsh chapel attender, who saw it as his duty to conceal, by hastily buying from the jumble stall a lady’s not really respectable under garment, all made of soft, silky red material, trimmed with black lace and furnished with four suspenders!

Rich Sutcliffe, in his pyjamas and dressing gown, gave us a very poignant childhood memory, of which he cannot rid himself, even though he is a grown man.

John Anderson’s brilliant ‘Last Chance’ gave us a chilling insight into a very creepy man.

Wendy Milner’s very touching ‘Just Another Saturday’ saw a genteel lady ‘of uncertain years’ making astute observations as she goes about her humdrum little life.

Bob Kendall had us in stitches with his ‘Get Away.’

Pam and David Whatley-Holmes in ‘Interactive’ were a couple who had been married too long.

Zarina Belk performed “Tidying Up”, the tale of a wife in an ordinary home who became increasingly infuriated by her husband’s insistence on symmetry in everything.. Zarina performed the piece beautifully without any sense of excess. This may be her swan song for the Players as she has now moved to Lincoln. Her acting and production skills will be sorely missed. She has worked incredibly hard for The Players over many years in virtually every role imaginable, including committee duties.

Mark Bamforth and Jane Ellison-Bates performed “Tea and Roses”, playing a middle aged couple whose marriage had fallen on dreariness. Consummate actors, their performance was a joy. I only hope they do not take their work home.

Grassington Players can rightly be proud to have put on an entertainment of such a high calibre of performance, aided of course, by the tireless backstage crew ensuring the set and technical effects for each cameo ran smoothly and without interruption.