One of a whole series of farcical comedies from the pens of David McGillivray and Walter Zerlin Jr; this 'A Christmas Carol' (with apologies to Charles Dickens, was the Christmas production of The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen's Guild Dramatic Society, no sorry, Droylsden Little Theatre.
Four ladies and a man, all members of the titular amateur group of would-be thespians attempt with varying degrees of unsuccessfulness to present their seasonal production of A Christmas Carol. Everything that can possibly go wrong does, and more besides. It is what Mischief Theatre would be like without years of rehearsal and dedication to getting it just right!
In this production by Droylsden Little Theatre, Stella Hutchinson, Julie McKnight, Lorraine Hall, Eddie Bradbury, and Hazel Phillips tried hard to imbue the script with the necessary energy and pizzazz to keep the script swift and fast-moving. Doing things wrong deliberately is truly not as easy as it might appear. Rehearsals are key to getting the wrong just right. Director Pete Curran had obviously worked hard with these five, bringing them to the standard they were this evening. There was also an element of chance in this script too, as audience participation was required and that too is difficult to predict, but this was managed with pantomime-style skill.
With pregnant pauses aplenty, cast making the wrong entrances and exits, coming out of character (Dickens) to their play characters, make-shift and shoddy sets, and goodness knows what else, as well as much of the dialogue being pre-recorded and presented as voice-overs (which were ostensibly being relayed over a radio where the waves were crossing with a police broadcast and other things too), it all seems highly improbable and anarchic, and that is (probably) exactly how it was meant to be.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 4.12.23
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 4.12.23
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