The De Valence Pavilion is hosting a double play performance by the renowned Fluellen Theatre company this summer under the title 'You're Having a Laugh'.

Written by Wales-based writer Ray Williams and the plays are best described as two tales of the unexpected and confirm that there are not many things you can't laugh at in life or even death.

The fist play 'Ole! Mrs. Roberts' - a comedy with spine chilling screams, is set on the patio of a rented holiday villa in Benidorm one hot summer's day.

The opening narrative leads us to believe that "This is not a holiday, this is a mission of mercy," basically to look after the recently widowed Olive (Bethan Thomas) namely by her best friend Polly (Claire Novelli) and her husband, the reluctant Terry (Kevin Johns) - rough diamond or gold digger, who have been invited to keep her company. We have the ghostly input of John, Olive's recently deceased husband (David Dooley) in the background just to keep up abreast of the truth.

It soon transpires that all is not at all what it seemed at the beginning, and as the saying goes 'what goes around comes around'.

Murder is not an easy business - any husbands fond of DIY and nagged into action by their wives out there are warned that climbing ladders to clear guttering may not be the task intended and may have deathly consequences and any wife not keen to learn to swim should keep well, well away from swimming pools in every circumstance.

To add to the suspense - we learn the meaning of the Spanish word 'prismaticos'.

Trust in no one.

After a much needed interval to recoup one's senses we were treated to the second play of the evening 'To Whom It May Concern'.

It is the end of the day, time to go home from the office at the end of a hard day and Mr. Mason (Kevin Johns) has the dreaded phone that his mistress wants to dump him and he faces the terrible future to return to his wife, Life is not looking at all good. Better off dead.

He calls back his hapless secretary (Bethan Thomas) to dictate a letter... "To whom it may concern..." a farewell message to the world as he prepares to jump out of the window of his high storey block and a goodbye to pain and disappointment, goodbye to trouble and strife. His unsympathetic boss Mr. Lewis (David Dooley) does not seem particularly bothered about anything other than Mason's typical selfishness.

What follows is a hopeless banter between the two who are later joined by a hapless police officer PC Todd (Peter Richards).

A wry tale of incompetence.

Contact the De Valence box office on 843568.

CAROLYN COX