Canterbury Tales

Six of Chaucer’s Tales as re written by Phil Woods (Coronation Street) in modern, ‘easy on the ear’ verse are enacted by an experienced cast. As expected they are bawdy and basic but with a moral to prove, if you care to concern yourself for a serious moment after the fun and frolics.

The author has written them in competition form whereby one will be adjudged the winner by a clap-o-meter at the end. The explanation of this at the start seemed to be somewhat laboured, perhaps the first night with a live audience proved a little tricky. Equally I found the ending with one tale obviously preordained to win, a rather downbeat finale.

However the tales themselves were very well portrayed with each actor taking several, often very different, characters. There was 100% involvement in the action and mime and most of the verse was well enunciated, essential for the audience to follow each plot.  All were taken at a good pace with total emphasis on the comic situations and misfortunes of cuckolded husbands and ‘innocent’ maidens!

The simple set, costumes and props complemented the unsophisticated atmosphere essential for the period. A lot of hard work had gone into this production, although I would have enjoyed another ‘Tale’ and less of the ‘padding’.         

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