WITH the village fete and carnival season now behind us, it can be fun to look behind the well-decorated faade of the day itself, and peer closely at the tragicomic spiritual and emotional turmoil - not to mention the interminable committee meetings - that exists under the costumes and behind the home made jam tarts.

Ian Taylor's character-driven gentle comedy is a stylish and witty reminder that, for some, the season of mist and mellow fruitfulness cannot come quickly enough.

This easy-going ensemble piece shows us the early planning stages and the day itself of a village fete in rural England.

Every actor gives a finely tuned, engaging portrayal.

Kaye Taylor's Ethel, the village gossip, dovetails nicely with the timid Angela (Karen Morris) and the splendidly straight-talking Mavis (Winnie Beatty - excellent again).

Jenny Orman (Sally) and Margaret Speakes (Gloria) are perfect as two women whose pain is assuaged - to a greater and lesser degree - by the distraction of the job in hand.

Andrea Peters is superb as Marjorie, whose initial horsy bombast translates into a lover's pain, and Denis Beardsworth and Roma Etherington, as the doubt-ridden local vicar and his duty-ridden, suffering wife, both show us the sadness of a marriage made in Purgatory.

There are laughs here, and pathos too. A sensitive, good-humoured cruise through human nature.

Day of Reckoning, Tyldesley Little Theatre. Runs until Saturday