LOCAL drama group Cradley Village Players follow last year’s moving study of the First World War with Habeas Corpus - a play by Alan Bennett that’s an unashamed celebration of sex and the human body.

The seaside household of GP Arthur Wicksteed (Mike Rogers) is revealed to be a hotbed of confusion, misunderstanding and frustration in which identities are mistaken, wires crossed and human emotions (and much else) laid bare

Regretting his lost youth, Arthur drops his veneer of smooth professionalism to reveal his desire for Felicity Rumpers (Cressida Dunnett) who has just appeared at his surgery.

But her nubile attractions are also the focus of Arthur’s hapless hypochondriac son Dennis (Dan Whitehouse), while his long-suffering wife Muriel (Tricia Rogers) and flat-chested sister Connie (Joanne Eldridge) have plans of their own.

These plans involve a falsie-fitter from Leatherhead (Chris Lowder) who aims his prehensile fingers at all the wrong bosoms, the Chairman of the BMA (Bill Chadney), an arrogant colonial widow (Jill Salmons) and a frustrated local clergyman (Tom van Vuren) - not to mention a patient (David Gutteridge) whose cries for help are studiously dismissed by the other larger-than-life characters.

Throughout all this Mrs Swab (Meg Monk), the lady-wot-does, manages to confuse the company and ensure we the audience are always one step ahead of the action.

‘This is a farce like no other’, says Producer David Robertson, ‘as the skeletons in Dr Wicksteed’s cupboard come home to roost in what one critic said was like an animated McGill postcard with the captions written by an elegant verbal stylist’.

‘Alan Bennett may have become a national treasure but he’s still a wickedly funny satirist in this his commentary on the ultimate selfishness of the permissive age.’

Directed by Mary Fielding, Habeas Corpus is at Cradley School from Wednesday, May 27 to Saturday, May 30. All tickets are £8 and can be bought online via Cradleyvillageplayers.com or at The Butchery, Cradley.

DAVID ROBERTSON

Caption: Arthur Wicksteed (Mike Rogers), Muriel Wicksteed (Tricia Rogers) and Shanks (Chris Lowder) rehearse a typically bizarre scene from Habeas Corpus.