Guards Guards

 Chorley Amateur Dramatic and Operatic Society’s latest production took us on a journey into the strange yet wonderful world of Terry Pratchett with his fantasy novel “Guards! Guards!” which has now been adapted for the stage by Stephen Briggs, and is based on the eighth in the Discworld series of books, first published in 1989.
The action takes place in the City of Ankh- Morpork on the flat earth of Discworld where we find the city Night Watch, some what reluctantly, defending Ankh-Morpork against a 60 foot fire breathing dragon, which has been summoned, using a book of spells, by a secret society of tradesmen led by Lupine Wonse- (David Walker),they are not happy with the current regime and have a devious plot to overthrow the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork- (David Hartley) by creating terror and panic. But it is to be the job of the members of the Night Watch who are a rather cynical lot, a bit crooked and are regarded as incompetent by most of the people of the city as they don’t achieve much, to stop the plan working and get rid of the Dragon. The Watch members include a grumpy disillusioned drunk, Captain Sam Vimes – (Simon Lloyd), Sergeant Colon- (David Greenfield), and Corporal Nobbs- (Jacob McAllister) who were both very funny characters and a new volunteer who was a six foot Dwarf called Carrot Ironfoundersson – (George Howard), he is honest, straightforward and idealistic, and was found in the woods as a baby by his dwarf adoptive parents and there by hangs another story. It was down to these four with some help from a small Swamp Dragon, the Librarian of the Unseen University- (Matthew Wilson), who just happens to be an orangutang, and is trying to retrieve the stolen book of spells and there is also Lady Sybil Ramkin– (Leonie English), the owner of the Sunshine Sanctuary for Sick Dragons, who prefers the companionship of her pet dragons rather than humans,  until she meets and falls for the Captain of the Guard, Sam Vimes.The story twist and turns leading us from one funny situation  to another and we are kept up to date intermittently with proceedings by some very witty narration from a large crow called Footnote, voiced by (Rebecca Moran),speaking from the bird/Bell-house situated on top of a gateway which was part of the striking well designed multipurpose set, built by the excellent backstage crew, which facilitated, with the help of a turntable, smooth  transitions between scenes. The set and the cast’s performance were complemented and assisted by some very good technical input which included sound and lighting and also colourful, well thought out, excellent costumes. There were sixteen members of the cast who were just right for their roles,  working together as a team, all producing very good funny performances with spot on comic timing,  I would love to have mentioned everyone as it was truly an ensemble piece, every performance was equally important for this play to be a success. It can be argued that this story has some of the most bizarre and cleverly written characters that are found in the really fascinating and very entertaining Discworld series and here they were brought to life skilfully. The Directors Paul Carr and Cerie Edge appeared to have thought about all aspects of the production and  knew exactly what they wanted leading to a unique, very funny, entertaining production thoroughly enjoyed by everyone, congratulations and thank you very much for inviting us.

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