EVERYTHING that happened to her was boring, or unspeakably bad in the eyes of Ella Spender — played by Ruth Soames in the Wesley Players' production of Quiet Weekend at Priory Methodist Church, Bedford, last week.

The concert she was organising would be terrible, and it got worse each year; her hat was hideous but "it's worse for you than for me."

It was a strong part and Ruth Soames made a good job of it, exaggerating the cheerful pessimist's character with zest and clear diction.

The plot involved a weekend in the country which turned out to be anything but quiet, enlivened by a salmon-poaching magistrate and a "fast"—for the time — woman who liked bright lights and parties better than the country life.

As the magistrate and his "partner in crime" respectively, Don Edwards and Tony Armstrong made the most of an unlikely situation — one with an initial timidity that turned into pride in his salmon-gaffing prowess and the other with bags of bluster and bravado became easily outraged by Rowena's (Sue Armstrong) party flirting, and eventually realised that he loved his childhood admirer Miranda (Liz Buckle) who brought to the part an appropriate mixture of anger and tenderness.

It all ended happily though: "Don't break her heart," says his mother. "I'm only afraid that she'll break mine."

John Woodward caught the part of Jim, whose only topics of conversation were golf and his "son and heir". This exasperated his wife (Barbara Noble) who was pretty convincing when angry.

Generally, the play frothed along through intrigues and embarrassing situations, and by the final act the pace picked up as the actors got into their stride.

The rest of the cast were: John Bennett, Marjorie Stoneham, Vivian Green, Olive Bennett and Jose Fennell.

Producer, Myrtle Newbury; stage management, Des Smith, Derrick Stoneham, David Carter; properties, Bill Newbold; prompt,. Joy Newbold; lighting, Andrew Cook; wardrobe. Gill Tysoe: make-up, Jose Fennell: and front of house, Martin Edwards.

S.P.