Carpe Jugulum

This play, based on a story by Terry Pratchett, was an ideal choice to celebrate Circle Players 90th Anniversary. It allowed the large cast to develop and maintain some very strong characterisations and to provide plenty of well-timed humour in the process. Congratulations to you all.

The story is one of a series of fantasy tales and, as a comedy, it relies very much on timing and this there was in abundance. There is a continual battle between the forces of evil represented by the vampires and the good represented by the witches. This worked really well in Act 1 but was blurred a little in Act 2 by the incursions into morality and life in general so loved by Pratchett. This is not a criticism of the production but just an observation of the material. The production was well paced, and every nuance of the characters was developed fully by the director and cast.

The vampire family were The Count (John Richardson), The Countess (Clair Tregellis), daughter, Lacrimosa (Julie Sadler) and son, Vlad (Taylor Johns). Their costumes and makeup were excellent. In addition, they had obvious canine teeth to be expected of vampires. In spite of the teeth their diction was excellent as were their characterisations. Their ‘loyal’ servant, Igor, was superbly played by Derek Willis. His characterisation and mannerisms were particularly strong as was his comedy timing. This latest version of vampires are immune to all the traditional ways of killing vampires and are intent on taking over the kingdom.

The only way to stop them is mobilise the witches in the form of Nanny Ogg (Carol Grice) and Agnes Nitt (Amy Tregellis) ably assisted by the Queen (Rebecca Lucas-Smith). These three characters worked very well together providing a lot of humour both in the spoken word and in the situations in which they found themselves. Carol Grice had superb comedy timing, and her asides often sounded like ad-libs. Amy Tregellis’s debates between her Agnes character and her alter ego were a delight as each time she turned the appropriate side of her costume to the audience. There was also a very amusing, suitably dozy interpretation of the local vicar, The Quite Reverend Mightily Oats, by Matt Round. It was touch and go as to who would win but the sudden intervention by Granny Weatherwax (Anne Harrison) and the fact that Igor changed sides won the day. Secretly I think that the vampires’ apparent liking for tea and biscuits was a major factor. There were lots of other characters involved in the story, some of them played by cast members already mentioned in disguise and some by other members of the company. I would like to mention you all individually but suffice it to say that everyone of you made an invaluable contribution to the story telling.

The costumes, lighting and set all enhanced the evening’s entertainment. The clever use of lighting and set ensured that the action from one scene to the next was seamless and, as an audience, we knew exactly where we were. This was set up perfectly by the introduction of all the characters by Jean Kerby as The Expert. 

This story set in a fantasy world and involving fantasy characters was so believable that I am sure that Terry Pratchett would have approved. Well done and thank you to everyone involved!

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.