An Evening with Little Grimley Amateur Dramatics Society

This pair of one act plays featuring the beleaguered Little Grimley Amateur Dramatics Society was a cheerful tonic on a dismal October evening. The dismally inept thespians from Little Grimley brought a very familiar set of am dram problems to life which would have been instantly recognisable to those of us who tread the boards in an amateur capacity! This production cleverly laced the dialogue with character names which referenced our very own District 3 stage stalwarts and your humble NODA reviewer even found himself cast as the villain of the piece in the second half: the evil drama critic from Grimley’s local newspaper having a name which was well suited to his profession. However, despite being the wielder of a poison pen in Grimley, faithful readers of my show reports (all three of you) will know that the real David Slater is nothing but sweetness and light when it comes to spreading positivity and encouragement with every honeyed phrase....

We first meet our beleaguered quartet as they gather to discuss the problems facing the society and what to do next. Membership has shrunk to just four (with the audiences for their theatrical endeavours being roughly similar in number) and a crisis meeting has been called to discuss our merry band’s next steps. Robin Brown played Gordon, Little Grimley’s am dram supremo, with his usual charm and panache. Capturing the put-upon chairman of the society perfectly, Robin Brown  brought more than a touch of theatrical verité to the role. To try to drum up an audience which might break through into double figures, Gordon decides to ‘sex up’ Little Grimley’s forthcoming production with the promise of some female flesh: unfortunately for Margaret, the female flesh in question seems to be hers. Marie Rae did a good job of bringing fussy Margaret to life, giving a fairly two dimensional character a realistic portrayal. Paul Moores was a very down to earth Bernard, set builder and general handyman for the Grimley amateurs, grumbling and moaning throughout the enterprise (as those of a more practical bent often do when faced with the unrealistic artistic requests of dreamy directors!) Completing the Grimley line-up, Barbara Chadwick was a joy as Joyce; dotty and enthusiastic - and with a penchant for musicals which unfortunately require a cast rather larger than the membership list - Barbara’s Joyce was a wonderful comic creation. 

Gordon’s decision to cause a theatrical scandal to sell tickets results in him putting together a play which promises sex and flesh by the stage-load, then passing on a few hints and whispers to the town gossip so she can spread the news. Sure enough, audience numbers are swelled by the promise of the possibility of being outraged and offended, all thanks to the agency of the rumour mill. Sarah Nolan’s tweaking of the character names to suggest Arts Club regulars was a very clever touch and helped to reinforce the universality of the theatrical themes: Little Grimley Amateurs thus became a reflection of every am dram society and also, added an extra layer of humour in spotting the references to familiar names and faces. Meetings were conducted and rehearsals blundered through with more than a hint of familiarity and all four members of the cast brought an air of verisimilitude to proceedings. As a lightly humorous one act treat, our introduction to the world of Little Grimley was cleverly put together.

Act Two presented a further adventure from our quarrelsome quartet, this time they’re up against the combined might of the various Saturday night television schedules. The horrors of reality TV; the culture of ‘celebrity’; judging panels and audiences voting for their favourites; all tactics which the Grimley gang attempted to use for their own purposes and attract audiences away from the telly. Again, all four performers brought a down to earth humour to their version of X Factor-Strictly-Stars in Their Eyes-on ice, with extra roller-skating and disco dancing marvellously thrown in for good measure. With some rapid-fire costume changes and the need to gad about the place on wheels, the cast coped marvellously with both the demands of the script and the limitations inherent in the Arts Club’s relatively bijou playing space. 

I have to admit that until attending this production it hadn’t dawned on me just how much of a double edged sword my surname can be when attending productions in my NODA reviewing capacity: as the Little Grimley newspaper theatre critic and I shared exactly the same name, to hear ‘slater’ being spat with venom from the mouths of our put-upon Grimley thesps with some regularity, I hoped it wouldn’t be necessary to do any slating of my own in print. Not that I ever do of course...

I certainly didn’t think that the second half of the evening was as interesting as the first however - I thought for all the excitement of the dressing up box, jolly music and roller skating that it was a little repetitive of the themes of the first half - but it was certainly worth suggesting that the empty cultural dystopia we all seem perfectly happy to put up with needs a good looking at: full marks to Sarah Nolan for choosing to present these two one act comedies which did just that. It was also nice to see a production which took a wry sideways glance at the contemporary cultural landscape too: think about how many societies resort to staging live versions of TV sit-coms in an attempt to bring in an audience, or feel the need to present one atomically awful jukebox musical after another, peppered with a cast whose vo-oh-oh-oh-oh-cal stylings resemble an X Factor audition. The Arts Club’s commitment to live theatrical entertainment of a higher calibre is always to be applauded and what better way to demonstrate their solid commitment to a higher art than with their exploration of much more interesting theatrical fare. 

The set was of the Arts Club’s usual high standard - well put together and wholly appropriate to the piece - with technical help from light and sound being pin sharp as always. I did on occasion wonder whether Paul Moores’ performance was perhaps a little too ‘realistic’ (I was never quite sure where ‘down to earth, world weary Paul’ stopped and ‘down to earth, world weary Bernard’ began - but then I suppose that can hardly be construed as a major problem!) Margaret’s character was perhaps a little under written but Marie Rae bounced along merrily as Grimley’s blonde bombshell. Barbara Chadwick was a hoot as Joyce and Robin was his usual dependable self with deadpan humour aplenty as Gordon and the musical finale was as studiedly naff as was required and topped off the evening in fine style. 

Here was a lightly humorous evening of nonsense which celebrated the glories of the amateur dramatics experience. Including the names of those familiar Arts Club stalwarts in the script was a winning touch and helped to tie together the am dram experience in general to the particular, local and familiar. Congratulations to all at the Arts Club for another interesting dramatic experience, a very warm welcome and for keeping their standards as high as always: I look forward to the next dramatic offering from this talented team.  

 

 

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