A PLAY about rural electrification doesn’t sound like the most scintillating of topics for a winter’s evening in a village hall, but Farnham Maltings’ story of a community transformed by electric light was cleverly woven into two love stories.

In a rural community William meets Stella.

The couple share an instant and literal spark the first time they touch.

But the young lovers are thwarted by the bullying and domineering Nigel, who intercepts their exchange of love tokens and scuppers their meetings.

William’s mother Mrs Atkinson is giddy with the attention shown to her by Stella’s father, a gruff man in a pork pie hat, who belies the dour image he projects to the outside world by writing her a heartfelt letter asking to be the light in her life. (Also, he really liked her homemade cake).

The five actors proved themselves to be extremely multi-talented, also performing and singing the play’s music and harmonising sweetly.

They lined up behind instruments ranging from xylophone to double bass to bring a soundtrack of humour and pathos to the meddlesome interventions in the course of true love that were compulsively Shakespearean.

The final denouement set 15 years after the play’s opening as William (Joe Butcher) discovered his romantic betrayal after he had done similar to his own mother was a powerful display full of raw emotion.

Fenella Norman as Mrs Atkinson brought humour and vulnerability to the role, while Rachael Garnett as Stella had a first class singing voice and proved to be a skilled trumpeter.

Ed Hole as the dastardly Nigel was the pantomime villain we loved to hate while Mick Strobel as Albert didn’t leave a dry eye in the hall in his final scene.

Brilliance was electrifying entertainment.