Outstanding production at Leamington’s Loft is full of warmth and humour

The impetus for the calendar is the death of Annie Clarke’s husband John (Rod Wilkinson) from leukaemia.

Annie’s friend Chris Harper persuades fellow members of Knapely Women’s Institute to pose nude to raise funds to buy a new sofa for the hospital’s visitor lounge.

Calendar Girls is a very English play reflecting the seasons - with touches of the saucy postcard, ‘Lawrence, we are going to need considerably bigger buns’.

The company established a strong rapport with the audience from the off and the audience responded generously, cheering them on as each picture was taken for the calendar.

While the main theme is the camaraderie of the women, there is always the keen edge of competition as they defeat the rival branch of the WI in the Victoria sponge category (buy one from M&S), outwit their local organiser Marie (Sue Wilkinson) and try to upstage Celia (Charlotte Brooks), who once rode naked on a Harley.

At the heart of the play are the two strong women Chris played by Rayner Wilson as bossy, funny and a real go getter who seizes her chance to shine and Annie the bereft widow played with great sensitivity by Mary MacDonald.

My personal favourite was Helen Ashourne as Jessie who rails against society’s attitude to older women and announces she is off to score crack cocaine.

But this is an ensemble performance and the strength of this outstanding production by Gus MacDonald is that the cast becomes a community and the warmth of their regard for one another comes across very clearly.

John described the WI as ‘A front for respectable women to get together and go mad’ - and last night the women of Knapely proved him right.

Sal McKeown