As with their previous production, I felt they found several interesting new laughs in the script. The actors were not getting the feedback they deserved for their energy, effort and genuine comedy. To me, and I am very glad we all followed COVID restrictions and distanced, the comedy lost the ripple effect of laughter, which normally spreads out. You just can’t grasp an audience around tables in the same way. At one educational conference the seats had been arranged like that around tables in groups by a previous presenter, and I simply said, “I don’t do cabaret even without chicken in a basket” and put them back in rows myself with my publisher’s rep. If you’ve ever addressed audiences in rows versus seated in groups at tables, you’ll know what I mean. I waited till very near the end to take a photo, and only did so because I saw several people were doing it! Apologies (and I will remove it if the company objects). As the rain started it set me wondering about costumes? Do they have two sets (I would think so) or is it out to find a launderette in the morning to dry them? A major theatre over-using its rain machine (as so many do) would have to have two sets for a matinee day. One minor fault – they really need to replace Hastings’ wig with a better one that fits. They do the Globe / RSC dance ending … and manage very well with just violin and handclaps. I’ve seen it costumed in other eras, and virtually always with elaborate and expensive sets. Playing it “large” brings the play an 18th century feel to me. It means it’s harder than the encircled Shakespeare’s Globe to project in the open air and they all managed well. Social distancing also means we took up a much larger area of the Mill courtyard than we would have done in the past, when we’d have sat in rows closer to the stage. You can only play it large in the open air, and with the odd motor-bike crossing the bridge nearby (and the inexplicable decision by Walford Mill to clean the toilet block during act one), you have to use volume. They also played with scene changes and the obvious restrictions of a small stage outdoors with only seven actors … there were several jokes about covering costume changes. So was Anthony Young as Mr Hardcastle who did some excellent filler lines and asides, Anthony Taylor as Tony Lumpkin framed the play and was relaxed in asides to the audience. The play lends itself to breaking the fourth wall and having fun with the audience, because it has all those scenes of walking forward in character and addressing the audience. As her cameo as “the tree” in the outdoor sene she got the loudest applause of the evening. The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature - This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.Pippa Meekings did Kate as the barmaid particularly well – she was Gwendolen when we saw The Importance of Being Earnest. Through various deceptions, Tony releases himself from his mother's clutches and unites Constance with Hastings. By posing as a servant, Kate wins the heart of Marlow, who is uncomfortable in the company of wellborn women but is flirtatious with barmaids. Humorous mishaps occur when Tony dupes Marlow and Hastings into believing that Mr. Hardcastle wants her recalcitrant son Tony Lumpkin to marry her ward Constance Neville, who is in love with Marlow's friend Hastings. Hardcastle plans to marry his forthright daughter Kate to bashful Marlow, the son of his friend Sir Charles Marlow. Subtitled The Mistakes of a Night, the play is a lighthearted farce that derives its charm from the misunderstandings which entangle the well-drawn characters. This comic masterpiece mocked the simple morality of sentimental comedies. Comedy in five acts by Oliver Goldsmith, produced and published in 1773.
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