We review St Peter’s Hill Players performance of The Thrill of Love at Grantham’s Guildhall Arts Centre

St Peter’s Hill Players are staging a very serious play with all the pitfalls that could entail – and can come away with their heads held high.

The Players are performing Amanda Whittington’s The Thrill of Love, the true story of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be executed in Britain. Her hanging caused controversy and eventually led to the abolition of the death penalty. Ellis shot and killed her lover David Blakely in a fit of jealousy and immediately admitted to his murder.

The first half of the play takes place in a London nightclub where Ruth, played by Briony Sparrow, holds down a job as a hostess and meets her friend Vickie Martin, played by Rachel Armitage. They bring plenty of humour and drama to the performance.

Suzie Stevens plays nightclub manageress Sylvia Shaw in a brooding and assured performance. Her character wouldn’t look of place in an episode of Eastenders. Verity Connor also brings humour to the proceedings as the cleaner, Doris Judd.

But the glue that holds the whole play together is the performance of Andy Masters who plays Detective Inspector Jack Gale and the narrator of the story. His character relays the details of the case and his investigation to the audience with confidence as we hang on his every word.

The Players have taken on a play which deals with a controversial and important part of British history and have successfully put it on the local stage.

Performances continue tonight (Friday) at 7.30pm and tomorrow at 2.30pm at the Guildhall Arts Centre in Grantham.