Sturminster Newton Amateur Dramatic Society 
The Exchange, Sturminster Newton
KD Johnson
23 July 2026
This is the first time for me at The Exchange in Sturminster Newton and the innovative but challenging work of the Sturminster Newton Amateur Dramatic Society – aka SNADS. Hopefully it won’t be my last.
Tonight’s two one-act plays are a double-bill by Claire Dowrie, first published in the late 90s. They both explore human sexuality – but from different angles. I might suggest that these are not the sort of plays that you would take your mother to see, as they both feature sexual swear-words and graphic descriptions of sex … but then I don’t know your mother.
All Over Lovely is a two-hander, featuring Nicole Forbes-Marshall (who also co-directs) and Sarah Collins as cousins, who reunite after many years for the funeral of one of their mothers. The two women are of different classes and cultures. One of them has been a successful businesswoman, lived in Australia, drinks wine, owns a Porsche and a microwave but is sexually repressed, has no children and considers that she has become her mother – whom she despised. The other drinks beer, started out with ideals of radical self-sufficiency and living in a commune but the commune has become a respectable market-garden business – so respectable that it sells to Sainsbury’s and even pays taxes! She has children from multiple relationships.
There is a fair degree of humour in the exposition, but it transpires that they had a tempestuous lesbian relationship in their youth and there are moments where it looks as though they might be heading back there.
This play, as well as the second, uses a number of video screens to display both innermost thoughts and memories and “flashback scenes”. Interesting and innovative though this is, there is some “empty air” when the actors are waiting for the technology to kick in. The screens provide an extra-dimension and allow portrayal of scenes in the outdoors and occasionally of people who don’t feature on-stage. It is an ambitious project to realise on the amateur stage and this production does so with varying success.
The two actors are well cast in their respective rôles and they handle the huge amount of dialogue well – unprompted but with occasional pauses where they seem to be hunting for the next line.
Easy Access (For the Boys), also directed by Nicole Forbes-Marshall, dives into the unfamiliar territory of male prostitution and goes deeper and darker into childhood sexual abuse and control. George Lipop excels in the demanding rôle of Michael, while Freddie Wopat convinces as Ed, the abusive and controlling father. Matt Rawson as Gary, another male prostitute, provides an interesting foil and commentary on Michael’s condition. I note one particularly telling line of his: something to the effect “All of my friends were abused as children except one – and he’s a liar” and another: “It’s all about power – in one form or another”. Supporting parts are played by Martyn Lilley, as Matt, and Hazel Perrett as Ruth.
Betraying the late 20th century origins of the script, Michael documents his life and feelings in a video diary, which he commits to VHS tape – the recordings are displayed on the screens around the stage and there are interesting scenes which give the illusion that we are seeing, live on the screens, the diary entry that he is recording onto a handheld video camera on stage.
Two provocative and thought-provoking plays for a grand total of £10 (and a reasonably priced bar for the interval). This double-bill airs again tomorrow (Friday 24th) at 19:00. Together the two plays run for over 3 hours, but they never seem to drag. It seems a lot of work for only two performances and these top-rate actors deserve a bigger audience – so catch them if you can!
