Sally was doubtful:

Penny decreed: No. You have to say you really liked him in "Hostage".

...

And you have to say .it like you mean it.

As in with a straight face? Can this be *done*?

I thought he was wonderful, myself. Look, my face was perfectly straight!

She also replied to Fiona:

...

I've seen "Julius Caesar" played totally straight by BBC actors dressed as ancient Roman aristocrats, and I've seen it played by an alternative theatre company who portrayed all the charactes as working-class Chicago mobsters.>

But have you seen the two mixed up and played with characters from both thrown together and pretending they didn't notice? That's the crucial point here for me - Brian Croucher wasn't playing the same character in a different production, but a different character in *the same* production.

Well, I've seen the same actor play Cassius for laughs up to the interval and in heartrending tragic mode afterwards. Both worked, but he never made it clear how he'd travelled from one to the other.

Harriet