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Few families can claim they have never got into pickle over something as trivial as a herring.
But when the headstrong Hilda refuses to eat her fish like a dutiful daughter, it leads to more than just a domestic spat. And that unravelling, strand by strand, of a family held together for years by the iron rod of its father, is at the heart of Bill Naughton Spring and Port Wine . This revival of the wistful comedy achieves exactly the right balance between pathos and humour as the authoritarian Rafe Crompton, played by Roy Barraclough, struggles in vain to maintain harmony. That this is a pacy production owes much to both Alan Dossor's nimble handling of what could otherwise be a very static play and the way the cast, particularly those in the Crompton household itself, gel into an authentic family unit. Anny Tobin in particular squeezes every last drop out of her role as Rafe's scrimping, white-lying wife Daisy and shows an almost balletic touch to some of her most comic scenes.