It was an evening of light entertainment for all who attended Strictly Matrimony on its opening night at City Hall on Wednesday evening.

Producers City Theatre Players in conjunction with KDB Entertainment staged the short West Indian farce written by Trinidadian Errol Hill.

The production was amusing but the cast of well seasoned actors fell short. Somehow their timing was off and the side splitting humour that the script did have was largely lost in their delivery.

Perhaps a little under an hour in length, I would not have wanted to stay in my seat too much longer.

And unlike others who said the subject matter was dated, I did not feel that was a big problem.

In fact much of the dialogue was quite relevant to our modern circumstances.

The play shows the importance of having respect for other cultures. It revealed the problems a couple who had been living happily together for six years encountered once they were forced to marry.

Although humorous, the piece had depth and there were several timeless lessons revealed.

The five well developed characters were the type of everyday people we all run into. The young con-artist aptly named Slick and played by Kevin Bean, showed that the average person really does not change much.

Interested only in himself, Slick tricks his good friend Manny Bonaparte into getting married at the start of the play and then when things are not working out well says he knows of a lawyer who can help him out of it.

And his overly trusting friend Manny, despite being duped by Slick in the past, quickly places his faith in him again.

Laura Gorham as Lady Polly Love-Muggins gave perhaps the best performance.

Her character, a narrow minded know-it-all who cannot conceive that anything outside of her viewpoint is worthwhile, certainly reminded me of many I know. Ms Gorham successfully donned a British accent for the role. But she and Kevin Bean were the only ones who managed to achieve that.

Rotimi Martins while animated and quite funny, has a Nigerian accent which sounds very different to a Trinidadian one. Denise Whitter, as Bella the bride was not at all convincing in her attempts at speaking in dialect and Danjou Anderson as Rev. Timothy Shrimp perhaps more appropriately, did not even try.

Strictly Matrimony runs from September 4 through 12 at City Hall.

There is no performance on Sunday. Showtime is 8 p.m. and part proceeds will be donated to the Bermuda National Gallery's literacy exhibition `Once Upon A Time..'