Betty is feminist account of how a male dominated church has suppressed female sexuality. There is much of importance and promise in this idea, but Betty does not rise to either. 
      Betty is a fifty year old spinster and religious enthusiast who discovers a new world of pleasure as a result of sitting on her vibrating washing machine. Distressed by her new found "sin" she consults her priest, who (after a strange knicker incident) tells Betty to go away. She, having faith in all that is holy. interprets this as an order to go and cleanse her sins on a pilgrimage with other like-minded people. Her plans start well, everyone going seems to be just the sort of company she needs, among them the self-flagellating Theresa, the pious William, the lavender- smelling old ladies. However the tranquillity of the devotees turns out to be a mere mask for a group of people who are not as holy as at first they seem. 
      The underlying message – how a naive woman can be swept away by religion – is not especially original and is not much developed in the play. Geraldine McNulty gives a good performance as Betty, making the best of a meagre script. But the play's one joke – the quivering washing machine and its effects – was beaten to death, and its increasingly unfunny iteration reduced the whole to farce. In short: an opportunity lost.
Elizabeth Shenton