Review

"Describing a song during restoration classic The Way of the World, one character observes "There is no great matter in it, but it appeals."

The sentiment also neatly sums up William Congreve's marathon comedy of manners which became the second outing for Lincoln's Indulgence Theatre last week, a worthy if overlong follow-up to its previously successful Antony and Cleopatra.

Staged over three nights at the Drill Hall, the production must rate as one of the most ambitious amateur shows ever attempted locally, a fact which made its high standards of acting, costumes, set and watchability even more of a triumph for all.

Drawing on the familiar faces from many of the city's existing companies, Indulgence has benefited from all of them, not least in the likes of Simon Clark, who both directed and took the male lead; Jo Hollingworth as the object of his affections; Martyn Skeates as the most foppish of fops; and Liz Lucas - taking a comic role which could not have been further from her previous Indulgence turn as Cleopatra - in typically scene-stealing form, especially in her pre-wigged incarnation when she unnervingly resembled one of Roald Dahl's Witches.

The superb costumes and make-up were also complemented by the ingenious set in which the intricate props were continuously dismantled and re-built into different objects during the scene changes.

In fact if there was a downside among so much to praise, it lay with the play itself which at nearly three-and-a-half hours made for a very long evening with little by way of plot as distraction yet curiously too much happening to quite keep track of it all.

In the end this was an authentic, divertingly different and predominantly successful production of a difficult work which underlines Indulgence not only as a company with a singular vision of its own direction, but one with both the courage and the talent to follow it."