On The Piste

by John Godber
Director Dexter Whitehead
Friday 9th May 2025

“On the Piste” dates back to 1990 and is from the pen of one of the UK’s most prolific playwrights, John Godber. Indeed, at one point he was behind only Shakespeare and Ayckbourn as the most performed writer in the UK and most theatre companies will have tackled his best known work “Bouncers” at some point.

Despite being 35 years old, the play does not feel dated in any way, probably due to contemporary references either being updated or just not being there in the first place. Just to be on the safe side though, a screen on stage right indicates the setting of May 1994. This is very much a broad comedy, albeit it never steps over the line into farce.

There is no curtain used in this production, so the first thing you see on entering the auditorium is the amazing set. Lots of white depicting snow, and even a couple of slopes, one of which seems to have some sort of rollers on to enable the cast to ski down it and luckily with an effective braking system to avoid decapitating the front row!

Lots of trees on the set itself, along with some painted ones on stage left, with more snow. This backdrop was movable so that other scenes could be depicted, such as in the bar, a hotel room or a sauna! The scene changes were handled efficiently and avoided slowing the action down – comedy needs pace after all.

So a shout out here to Mark Nattrass and his team for producing something magnificent.

Some nice inventive touches here included a sauna bench being reconfigured into a chairlift.

Costumes were appropriate with lots of colourful ski-suits on show, with enough attention to detail to avoid them just looking generic and bulk bought.

Some effective bright lightning for the snow scenes and I particularly liked the red spotlight put on to the character of Chris when he was having flashbacks to his DJ days.

Most of the between scenes contained music from Abba, which built to another fantasy sequence, and this is where I never ceased to be amazed at what an amateur company can bring to a production as four of the cast were in full Abba gear and one even came on with a piano – all this for a sequence which probably took less than 2 minutes. The Abba theme climaxed with an audience karaoke of “Dancing Queen” to bring the show to an end,

Lots of energy from the cast in this production, most of whom were adopting some form of regional accent none of which waivered that I could tell.

The character of Tony the ski instructor is very much an over the top character which needed an over the top performance, and this is absolutely what we got from Paul Atkins in this role. Lively and energetic from start to finish as someone full of self-confidence and self-belief and he interacted well with the other actors. It also takes a lot of guts to perform what he did in the sauna scene. (I was going to say it takes something else but that may have been misconstrued!)

Luke Saldana and Jayne Lunn were very much a believable pairing in their roles as the northern couple (“somewhere between Manchester and Wakefield” is the phrase I use when I attempt it!) Chris and Alison. The interaction between the two was delightful as they ran the gamut from one end to the other as a couple that has both been together too long but also have become dependent on each other. The bedroom scene where Alison confesses her infidelity was particularly compelling.

Dave and Bev have to come across as the couple where you wonder how they ever got together in the first place, but such were the performances of Dan McCloskey and Harriet Gordon in these roles. Harriet was definitely in full “Made in Chelsea” mode as Bev which contrasted nicely with Dan’s more Brummie tones as Dave. Or Kevin. There was a clear distinction between the character and his alter ego so that you clearly knew which one he was at the time.

Rounding off the speaking parts was Kayleigh Allison in the role of the semi-mysterious solo traveller Melissa who I suppose in the 1990s we would have called a Sloane Ranger. The character is probably less fleshed out than the others, I am assuming intentionally in the script, to preserve an air of ambiguity, and Kayleigh certainly gave an enigmatic performance in what could have just been a standard femme fatale character.

Shout out also to the 7th member of the team that was on stage, not credited in the programme so I don’t know his name, who played what in TV terms is known as a background artist. Whether on stage as a barman, sauna user or whoever, despite his lack of lines he was still fully integrated in the team. Personally, I’d have put him in the programme unless he asked not to.

In conclusion, a funny play very well performed which certainly engaged the audience in what appeared to be an almost full theatre. Definitely a good way to spend a Friday night.

Reviewed by – David G