POLLY Lamb’s latest play, Your Move, was sold out before it opened at the Town Hall, playing for the first three days of Frome Festival 2026. Once again, town councillor and fair housing advocate Lamb has created a play that taps into the concerns of the 2020s, focussing on the “new” ways we live and the pressures we must navigate from an increasingly faceless world of technology, expectation and disappointment.

Your Move is all about four women, in their late 30s and for one reason or another on their own, hardworking but not earning enough to buy their own property, who decide to pool their resources and buy a house together while they sort out their lives. But, with the best will in the world, this will not be an easy experiment in living. Hopes of lives a bit like those they loved on TV (Friends, Modern Family etc) hit the reality checks of the cost of living crisis and working for less-than-understanding employers. And then there are all the labyrinthine traps and temptations of an on-line world.

It is a very clever play, simply staged with all those unopened boxes that accompany house moves, carrying little character clues. The women dress in colours that underline their personalities – Lauren (Stephanie Richards) in flamboyant red, Ali (Daisy Mercedes) in yellow, Mae (Rosie Allerhand) in green and Chloe (Astrid Callomon) in blue. It’s pretty clear that the relief, jubilation and excitement of moving into a new house together will be short-lived. The super-organised Lauren has taken over the “management” – not altogether a happy decision. And in less than 24 hours the careful Chloe, with her imposter syndrome, spots something strange going on.

As the first mortgage repayment day approaches, it is becoming clearer that their joint finances are not going exactly as planned. Mae, who has inherited some money from her recently deceased mother, is getting a bit fed up with being a benevolent bank. Ali, grieving for her beloved husband Tom, needs lots of help and support.

The four actresses give vigorously memorable performances, creating viscerally believable characters. If time had allowed, it would have been good for Chloe’s back-story to be a bit more developed – I left wondering how her insights had been acquired. Your Move tells an important story, and one which, in these days of “mental health issues” as explanations for all sorts of hitherto unacceptable behaviour, offers a spotlight of understanding.

The play begins with a flashback, another co-incidence in Frome, where the derelict Saxonvale factory went up in smoke two days before the opening night. And the ending of Your Move is almost like a post-script.

See this latest play by the Really Truly Theatre Company in Frome on 4th and 5th July … and look out for them in the future.

GP-W