BETHANY Heath is now a veteran of the Frome Festival, after a Peter Shaffer for Frome Drama and a stint as a wife of Henry VIII last year.

For the 2018 event she took the brave step of an (almost) solo show, performed at in the intimate Three Swans, packed to the gunwales on a stifling opening night with friends and fans. Definitely Louise is a brilliantly conceived and shaped show, ostensibly all about a foul-mouthed would be acting star.

Avoiding spoilers, it is much, much more than a look-at-me monologue, twisting and turning through high comedy, witty one-liners and prescient observations about the potential dangers of “social” media until the story suddenly becomes clear.

It does give Bethany, who also wrote the piece, a chance to demonstrate her versatility and her ability to hold the attention of the audience, even in the cramped and very hot  confines of the “function room” of the Three Swans.  A line in the programme hints at the inspiration behind the story, but it stands on its own without any explanation, and richly deserves  a wider and larger audience.

GP-W