A Friendly Invasion of the Corn Hall by the Harleston Players

Posted on 19th July 2024

The latest production from the Harleston Players was truly an all singing, all dancing affair, with the Station366 Singers and a team of dancers adding a sense of scale and spectacle to the story of wartime romance in East Anglia. Eileen Ryan’s witty text switched between a modern day celebration of the American “Friendly invasion” of our region, and the relationship that blossomed at the time, between an American airman and a farmer’s daughter. The link is Malcolm, a wide-eyed young lad during the war, a sanguine old man in his twilight years.

Tightly choreographed between the two timeframes, we gradually built up a picture of what happened to these characters, and by implication to so many people of the time, as historical detail was deftly weaved into the narrative.  Eileen Ryan’s direction drew some fine performances from her cast. The chemistry between Beth Spaul’s Joyce and Joe Edwards-Gill’s Cal was evident throughout, lending depth and authenticity to their romance. It was nicely counterpointed by the comic timing of Meryl Keeble’s Alma, besotted with Steve Barrett’s cleverly underplayed Jay. A special mention must also go to the precocious talent of Oliver Gilbert. I imagine he’s a good deal older than his trousers suggested, but his range – from young Malcolm to old bloke in pub, with a GPO announcer thrown in for good measure – was remarkably assured.

This was a deceptively complex play, that knitted all sorts of themes together, without lapsing into docudrama. It even took advantage of the audience’s acceptance that the actors will inevitably play more than one role. Apart from subliminally providing a familial link between the different time frames, this allowed for a big reveal –  an audacious helping of magic realism that neatly tied together past and present in a way that was as surprising as it was satisfying.