Teddington Theatre Club (TTC) has been performing Genni Trickett's Weird Women at Hampton Hill Theatre since Tuesday, 28 January, and last night, I had the pleasure of seeing it.

Taking place in the upstairs performing room, the audience were seated very close to the 'stage', providing a very intimate atmosphere and making us feel like we too were in the fictional Barrow House living room in Lancashire.

The stage setting remained the same throughout, a living room fit for an elderly woman, or in this case, the living room of the recently deceased Dorothy (AKA Dotty Nana), with its quilted-covered wooden couch, parquet rug, and a lampshade looking like it just about survived WWII.

The play is set in the living room of Dorothy's house (Credit: Tilly O'Brien)

The show only consists of seven characters: Dianna (Claire Morrisey), Barbie (Anthea Barter), Lillian (Isabelle Cream, Eddie (Michael Andrew), Morgan (Jenny Doran), Cassie (September Taliana-Carey), and Zack (Jasper Loxton).

There are seven cast members in Teddington Theatre Club's 'Weird Women' (Credit: Teddington Theatre Club)

And I was highly impressed by how well each actor performed, minus the odd slip up in lines, particularly by that of Taliana-Carey, who played Dianna's daughter Cassie, and Barter, who played the extroverted, hippyish 'weird' sister Barbie; both were excellent with their facial expressions.

The seemingly more together of the sisters, Dianna, played by Morrisey, who is also mother to Cassie and Morgan and lives in London, had a fabulous Lancashire accent.

Lillian, played by Cream and the third 'weird sister', was the most empathetic character who frequently kept quiet and did as she was told by her aggressive vicar husband Eddie.

Lillian and Eddie's son was probably the most comical character, boasting about his model girlfriend (doesn't appear on set) Jemima, and enjoys drinking copious amounts of whiskey.

On that note, I would say that whiskey is a potential eighth character as the bottle was constantly passed round the group, excluding Eddie, and I couldn't help but wonder if there was actual whiskey in the bottle given that the cast seemed to down their glasses pretty quickly.

The play begins in Dorothy's living room in Barrow House where sisters Lillian, Dianna, and Barbie mourning their mother following their funeral along with Eddie.

Immediately, we can see that Barbie is a little odd, dressed in a dark green, boho maxi dress and sparkly headband, and staring at a picture of her mother.

In fact, just by how each sister is dressed, you can tell that they're all very different; Dianna wears a black patterned blouse and suit pants, and Lillian dresses all in black with a jumper covering a white shirt, black skirt, tights, and pumps, very matching with her husband's vicar uniform.

Despite this being a time of mourning, all the characters are slightly comical, particularly Eddie, which is strange given he becomes the villain of the story, and none of the family are seen consoling each other.

As the only male character in this scene, we can straight away see that Eddie embodies the toxic 'man of the house' role, offering Dianna a large book holding a contract with what he wants to do with Dorothy's house, despite her not being his immediate family.

There also seems to be a lot of tension between Dianna (the youngest sister) and Barbie (the middle sister) as Dianna wants to sell the house and Barbie wants to continue living there.

And Lillian, despite being the eldest sister, seems to remain quiet, often being spoken over by her husband.

Next to join the scene are Dianna's daughters and they also seem to be very different; Cassie is a loud and vibrant girl with tattoos, while Morgan is very quiet.

Cassie immediately livens up the mood, talking about 'modern' things like shellac nails and spending all her cash from her PR job on nights out.

Then arrives Zack, who seems to be slightly drunk already, and it's obvious that Zack and Cassie will get on, despite Zack seeming to be relatively older than Cassie as he reminisces seeing Cassie as a child in dungarees and pigtails.

The whole cast of TTC's 'Weird Women' were excellent (Credit: Teddington Theatre Club)

At this point in the play, the family seemed like fairly 'ordinary' one and I couldn't work out why the play was called Weird Women.

However, tensions soon arise after Eddie tries to force Lillian into attending Evening Song with him despite her wanting to catch up with her son and sisters, and Cassie says what the audience are thinking; that Eddie uses masculinity and role as a religious leader to control Lillian.

During this argument between the niece and uncle, we capture the first glimpse of something 'weird' about the family as Eddie starts stumbling on his words and appears like he is having a stroke.

This odd occurrence foreshadows what we soon find out in the second half of the first act; that the sisters and their mother are witches and potential descendants of a Pendle witch who avoided the mass hangings of witches in Pendle Castle.

This part of the story was expertly told by Barter, and I couldn't help but reminisce when I studdled the Pendle witches for A-Level History nearly ten years ago.

With her Bohemian image and psychic career, it should have been obvious that Barbie was a witch, really.

The first act goes on to talk about a mysterious Malcom, who clearly hurt Cassie in some way, and the audience were left contemplating who he was and what he did during the interval.

The second act is where all our questions were answered, and without revealing them to you, I will say that this is where Morrisey really shone through as an excellent actor as she told her sisters the horrific story of Malcom.

The scene brought tears to my eyes, and I was impressed at how well Morrissey played crying.

Despite the previous clashes between the sisters, it was heartwarming to see the sisters come together in this very sad moment.

Next, a plot-twist is revealed, and again I won't ruin it for you, but I was happy to see that Morgan was starting to talk more and to understand why she was so quiet.

The end was pretty abrupt, especially as it followed a very violent scene in which Eddie tried to strangle numerous characters, but again, I was amazed at how well Cream played crying; she even had mascara smudged under her eyes, which is typical of when women cry.

It was certainly an excellent play, though pretty morbid (very fitting for a cold Wednesday night in January), had the audience laughing throughout and with their questions answered by the end.

My only complaint is that we didn't see Zack at all in the second act.

TTC are continuing to perform Genni Trickett's Weird Women until Saturday, 1 February, with two performances on the final day.

You can book your tickets here.