JOHN Godber’s play is about relationships and the effects that a lottery win can have on them.

Morris and Jean, married for 22 years, have settled into a rut of bickering domesticity. When they win £2 million Jean feels that their lives must change for the better; Morris isn’t so sure.

Jean wants to travel and spend, Morris is much more cautious. This leads to the breakdown of their marriage and Morris’s return to a former girlfriend.

It’s a serious play but, as you’d expect from Godber, has lots of funny lines.

Maggie Brown as Jean and Pete Cook as Morris were outstanding. Carolyn Miles and Susan Barham, as Jean’s sister Annie and their mother, gave very strong performances.

Pete Francis played Annie’s husband, the rather ineffectual and laid-back Norman, and Louise Hayling was good as Connie, Morris’s extra-marital interest.

The smaller parts were the Vicar (played by Kate Youll) and the waiter (Alan Munday, whose American accent needed some work!).

The plot incorporates a range of emotions, which were really well handled by the cast, particularly by the two main characters.

Pete Cook as Morris handled the drunk scenes well, although his diction was more difficult to understand in these. Underlying their characters’ problems was the death of their daughter in a traffic accident, something opaquely alluded to but which clearly affected them deeply.

With seven different scenes the set was problematic for an amateur group but it was imaginatively done with smooth scene changes in full sight which added interest.

The final scene, with Morris’s homecoming, didn’t quite work. Maybe Morris should be to one side, rather than centre stage, with Norman and Annie to the other side.

Director Matt Stanley gave us a fast-paced production of an interesting play with some top class acting.

Paul Shave