NOT LADY CHATTERLEY’S LOVER

Dorchester Corn Exchange

A CLASSIC novel that was once banned and as a result became the talk of the town, is the backdrop for this comic farce that takes a new look at serious issues and somehow magically turns them into riotous jokes.

When the aristocratic Clifford Chatterley returns from World War 1 in a wheelchair, his wife Connie does not need much persuasion to look around for a new man to love who will also provide her with an heir to the estate.

That is pretty much about as far as D.H. Lawrence’s story goes, because from then on the plot becomes an excuse to turn the whole thing into a madcap parody that pokes irreverent fun at everything from class structure, sex, the army and physical disability, all done in dubious taste but with maximum hilarity and audience appreciation.

The excellent young cast of four take all the serious silliness in their stride in a script written by Lawrence Russell who also takes on the role of the handicapped Clifford in an inventive piece of physical theatre with a highly original plot where adult humour includes romping among the flowers in the forest and with the gamekeeper Mellors showing off his assets

With Christina Baston as Connie, Wesley Griffith as Mellors and Rebecca McClay as everyone else, the laughs just keep coming in a touring production that plays at Poole Lighthouse on November 2 and Lyme Regis Marine Theatre on November 3 before heading off up north.

MARION COX