Everyone has experienced the dreaded ‘bad day’ where nothing seems to work out. Lovehart Productions takes this to the heightened extreme in this memorable disaster story focusing on three flatmates and their hilarious attempts to evade the consequences of having an unconscious man lying on the floor of their flat.
With a short but sweet script written by Brigette Wellbelove, Lovehart Productions are worth watching
The troupe of actors do a fantastic job of creating contrasting and relatable characters. First we meet Emma (Brigette Wellbelove), the eccentric and occasionally childlike flatmate who is unemployed due to her infatuation with crime, escaping mundane reality by speaking dramatically into her dictaphone to narrate her everyday life. The heart of the play’s problems, her excitement upon being asked to re-enact an unsolved murder for the illusive plumber Danny (Lee White), who matches her in terms of unusual behavior and an interest in solving crimes, allowing for a comical exchange between the two, spoken almost entirely in over-dramatized narration before he is accidentally knocked out by Emma.
The show is excellently paced, allowing enough time between the introduction of each character for the audience to achieve a solid understanding of them. Soon after the accident we meet two new characters: exasperated workaholic Leslie (Katherine Hartshorne) and the well-meaning nursing home worker Becca (Katie Wells), who successfully portrays a character who is vital in creating a middle ground between opposites Emma and Leslie. The dynamics between the three flatmates was well played out, with particularly good chemistry between Emma and Leslie, who were clever in their comedic timing and able to play off each other with ease. Despite good performances from the whole cast, the humour of the piece shines mostly through Wellbelove’s exceptional Emma, whose naivety and clumsiness alongside her fascination with death only helps the situation descend into further chaos, making the desperate panic of her other flatmates even funnier.
Good People, Bad Day is certainly is worth seeing, with strong direction from Milla Jackson helping move the characters around a small space whilst mostly avoiding repetitiveness. And though every now and then, a joke or gimmick came close to being overused, the references to past experiences within the flatmates’ daily lives kept you laughing. With a short but sweet script written by Brigette Wellbelove, Lovehart Productions are worth watching.
