Dolly

Take a well-worn plot. A talented young woman from the sticks has a dream of making it big in show business. With the help of an enthused manager/lover she makes an initial splash then fades back, minus bloke, into semi-contented obscurity. Then graft that plot on to the factual story of Dolly the Sheep, the first ever cloned animal. Country and Western meets the world of science; the music of Dolly Parton – the real sheep was named after her – meets the people in white lab coats; themes of female aspiration compete with issues associated with science and ethics. It's an original idea for a play; and it works, up to a point. One problem is that Nottingham-based writer Andy Barrett's text and characters often force the actors into very soapy corners. There are too many lines like "What's that supposed to mean?". And too often the actors have little choice but to resort to pulling stock facial expressions. Another, albeit lesser, problem is one that often crops up in plays about boffins. Jaws drop with utter bafflement every time someone says anything remotely scientific. This is despite some excellent stuff about science from Barrett in his programme notes. When poor Neil (John Elkington), the cloner-in-chief, ventures a word about the nature/nurture issue he's told by wife Mary (Kate Adams) not to talk as if he's in his lecture theatre. There's some toe-tapping singing and musicianship though – In the Sweet By and By near the end is particularly good. Everyone in the cast doubles as a musician. Miriam Elwell-Sutton is very effective and fetching as central character Bettina, the Parton wannabee clone, but with every actor on stage nearly all the time it's an unselfish ensemble piece. The lamb and sheep puppetry is remarkably good. The play is directed by Daniel Buckroyd.

A really great show plenty of laughs a really good "feelgood" factor production well done