ACTRESSES rule the stage, and nothing as gross as a man gets a look-in on the all-female Steel Magnolias.

Yet Lindisfarne Players production can be, and is, enjoyed by six-packing blokes as much as by ladies on a night out.

The play offers its actresses a range of parts to die for. Lindisfarne’s six players all grab the chance and let rip with a succession of knock-out turns.

The core driver of this play is female bonding, and none of the bravura individual performances, however powerful, detracts from this sense of an an informal sisterhood with huge reservoirs of strength and humour.

Set entirely in the hair salon in deepest Louisiana run by the warm-hearted Truvy (Suzanne Walters), Steel Magnolias follows its six women through all life’s big moments.

Experiences of birth, marriage, marriage break-up, religious faith, politics, business, illness, and death are all reflected in the salon’s mirrors.

The play opens on the eve of the wedding of Shelby, a young nurse (Elizabeth Smith). She and her mother McLynn (Kim Tobin) alternately feud, point-score, and sulk.

Meanwhile, new-girl-in-town Annelle (Toni Taylor) has just started work as a stylist, wealthy politician’s widow Clairee (Elizabeth Green) is busy sewing mischief whenever she gets the chance, and cantankerous Ouizer (Carol Hayes) arrives at the salon to complain about the neighbours.

While in turns sentimental, warm and sad, Steel Magnolias is above all very funny. It packs in some of the best one-liners in recent theatre such as: “I’m not crazy, I’ve just been in a very bad mood for 40 years!”

The humour, though, like the rest of the play, runs deep. Through laughter and tears alike, you become part of the world of Truvy’s hair parlour.

As a baldie bloke, unfamiliar with either female bonding or hair salons, I still felt one of the girls. That’s real theatrical magic for you.

Steel Magnolias, Palace Theatre, Dixon Studio, Westcliff.

7.45pm. Saturday matinee 3pm Until Saturday 01702 351135