By CAROLINE STRAINIG
THE Players Theatre’s latest production opened on Friday – writer Neil Simon’s famous play The Gingerbread Lady.
The star is Evy Meara (played by Lyne Turner), a recovering alcoholic, who returns home to her New York apartment after a 10-week-stint in rehab.
I laughed and then almost cried as I was taken on an emotional roller-coaster as Evy battled to stay off the booze, supported by her oh-so-gay friend Jimmy Perry (played by Adrian Davis), daughter Polly Meara (Renee Egger) and friend Toby Landau (Amanda Gordon). The cast also includes her on-again-off-again boyfriend Lou Tanner (Tim Ronan) and delivery boy Manuel (Lachlan Fardy).
This is definitely not a play for young children, but I highly recommend it for older teens and adults. It has a lot of great life lessons, packaged in an enjoyable couple of hours of escapism.
The acting was top notch – underlining yet again what a wealth of performing arts talent we have here in the Hastings.
The Gingerbread Lady will run until 27 July.
Book at the Players Theatre or the Glasshouse or online atwww.playerstheatre.org.au.
