SIX cracking characters and a volley of side-splitting one liners. Adrian's Wall was a jolly affair.

Alison (Naomi Blenkarn) persuades city boyfriend Graeme (Paul Sullivan) to go on a conservation weekend in the Lakes. A get to know each other better' break.

Joining the happy throng is earth mother Dinah (Rosie Wates), a gushing, herbal tea drinking hippy, with hubbie Bob (Steve Hall) whose artistic talents have dried up as well as his ability to speak to the rest of the party, as Dinah does all the talking for him.

Bob gets bigger, bolder and better as the weekend progresses.

Enter weekend course leader Adrian (Guy Pocock) who from the outset has more in his sights that just building stonewalls with Alison.

Adrian's a bit like a coffee - dark and silky smooth, but his patter fails and Alison blows him out. "Spontaneous romance needs careful planning," grins Adrian as he explains to Alison why the barn has a bed that slides out of the wall and a music system built into one of the beams.

The icing on the cake is Sophie Bryde who, in Zoe, plays a great angst ridden teenager doing community service.

She delivers her lines with precision timing (as did the rest of the cast) and at one stage rocks the Brewery Arts Centre theatre miming Avril Lavigne's Sk8er Boi - a young actress bursting with potential.

Comic moments were aplenty, but from where I was sitting the bare-buttocks of Graeme in Alison's pink thong seemed to get the biggest laugh of the night as he bungled his way out of the loft window and into the bed of Dinah and Bob.

Under Sam Mason's direction, Adrian's Wall didn't crumble into silliness.

Great set, effects (under the stage management of Sara Last) and accomplished performances from all six Brewery Theatre Company actors.

For me though, the end petered rather than played out and didn't do the rest of the production justice.

However, a piece of comedy writers Andrew Thomas and Colin Shelbourn should be proud of.AM.

April 10, 2003 10:31