THE mention of 'pizazz' is pushing it a bit, but Sway Drama Club has a special charm in which their ploughman’s supper has only a small part, and their latest offering has included a busy programme – two one act playlets, a concert by Milford Musicale, the raffle and the aforementioned ploughman’s.

You might also care to cast an eye on the excellent selection of preloved books for sale.

All this is some mitigation for the fact that the evening only includes a bare 40 minutes of drama.

Early Blight by Jean McConnell, sees a mother and daughter – Helen (Gundreda Whatley) and June (Sara Woodley) – display a long-nurtured antipathy but not really ripping each other’s guts out as one might expect, at least in the metaphorical sense.

Although set “on a sea front”, the sound, set and lighting do not indicate this and one wonders if John James – the director of this and its partner piece Mother Figure by Alan Aykbourn – could have employed the talents of Milford Musicale to provide a suitable background atmosphere.

As it is, the singing group gives us an indulgent selection of tuneful songs, from Cats Duet by Rossini to Sting’s Fields of Gold.

Mother Figure, one of the five connected acts of Aykbourn’s play Confusions, does have an amusing role reversal, as exhausted mum Lucy (Karen Landa) deals with her quarrelling neighbours (Penelope Wright and Chris Murray).

Ham Quentin