Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

The theatre was quite full which is always lovely to see, and we were made very welcome by the Front of House team.

As the show started, we saw a lovely set, depicting a hotel in the South of France in an indeterminate period.  It isn’t defined in the synopsis but, from most of the costumes it appeared to be around the middle of the 20th century.

David Pridige played Lawrence, and he produced a very good character, you couldn’t help liking him even though it became obvious, very quickly, that he was a conman.  David’s character was charming and very well performed.

Then we met Freddie, also a conman but the complete opposite of Lawrence.  Allister Fudge-Smith played this part with great energy.   The character is generally portrayed as being loud and raw round the edges.   However, although he is a conman, he should still have some redeeming features.  Allister played the character well, although I felt the portrayal was a bit ‘over the top’.  Later in the show, Freddie plays Ruprecht, the fictitious brother of Lawrence, to drive away the Texan heiress Jolene. Ruprecht has, therefore, to be very offensive and appear completely mad.  I felt that the difference between the two characters was not different enough to make an impact.

Louise Byrne played Christine perfectly, if you didn’t know the story and the denouement you would have been completely taken in, as were the two male lead characters.  Gemma Ackred played Muriel beautifully and her on stage partnership with Andre, played by Jamie Fudge-Smith, was perfect.  Both their characters were spot on. I must give a special mention to Jess Pether who played Jolene, a perfect cameo of the rich, Texan heiress.   The rest of the company took on several different parts and enthusiastically embraced their characters.

I don’t remember, from the last 2 times I saw this show, that there were so many dance numbers, but on checking I have discovered that they were all in the script.  Personally, I felt that so many dances detracted from the set piece numbers that were true company numbers.  By the time we got to The More We Dance I felt that I had seen enough dancing.  I also think it might have been better not to include all the company in some of the dance numbers, some were not as proficient as the others, and this stood out.

The singing was good, with all the right harmonies.  Costumes were a bit of a mixture, I was not certain about Freddie’s shorts at the beginning but, as the period was not defined, its difficult to make a judgement.  The rest of them looked good and were worn well.  There was a lack of attention to detail in much of the production, for example, Freddie (playing the disabled Buzz) had a bowl of hot soup poured in his lap.  Having admirably pretended he didn’t feel it, when he stood up to give his full reaction, his trousers were not stained. Its little things like that that transform a good production into a great one.

Lighting and sound were good, with just a couple of technical issues with mics, but they were quickly overcome.  The set was hired in so we would expect it to be good, but I did have an issue with the scene changes.   I applaud the director’s efforts to avoid blackouts for scene changes, but it would have been more pleasing to the eye if the crew had been wearing costumes, maybe as hotel staff, instead of blacks, as they stood out unnecessarily. In fact, the scene changes in the second half were mainly done by the cast and this seemed to speed up the pace a lot.  This was good because the first Act seemed to be quite slow which improved in the second Act.

Overall, an entertaining evening, my thanks to Shenfield Operatic

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