Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen's Guild Macbeth

The very name ‘Shakespeare’ comes with a certain gravitas but David McGillivray and Walter Zerlin’s madcap The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society’s Production of Macbeth, would have the great Bard spinning in his grave as, of necessity, a certain amount of it is by William Shakespeare. 

With this production the NOMADS’s cast take on the mantle of members of the Farndale Avenue Townswomen's Guild endeavouring to perform Mr Shakespeare's Macbeth.  The Farndale ladies have entered a drama festival but unfortunately everything that could possibly go wrong does. It is therefore hard to review a production which should, by it’s very nature, be intentionally dreadful.

To make this type of production work, it is very important for director, cast and crew to really understand what the writers intend. It is also very important for the cast to get their performances right – or wrong, as the case may be. I felt that all involved understood the genre and strove to make it work. It is important things are kept tight, such as badly timed and inappropriate sound effects, random cues, disastrous set and props, fluffed lines, excessive prompts, actors stepping out of character, inept crew and chaotic scene changes.

I am a great fan of the Farndale Ladies Dramatic Society and this doubtless colours my reactions and expectations. Although the script is tight and may not appear to offer much scope in terms of staging potential, there are always alternative possibilities in a play script and most Farndale scripts offer an opportunity to elaborate on the ‘Guild’ moments such as the three witches song and dance routine for ‘That Old Black Magic’ which, I felt, was cut too short. Also some attempt at awful Scottish accents would have added to the stupidity of the whole thing.   I was sorry that the awful piano playing together with the character of Gwynneth was dispensed with and the decision not to have Mrs Reece greet members of the audience on arrival was perhaps wrong.  This character mingling with arrivals does set the tone of the evening.  It is a hard genre to publicise as the company has to convey the information that it is not the Farndale Avenue  Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild performing but NOMADS performing as the FAHETG (or endeavouring to perform) their version of Macbeth.  Not all members of the Tuesday night audience actually understood that from what I overheard in the interval and afterwards.  That said, I think that all in all, like Daisy, they pulled it off. 

Apart from the men, excluding the role of Henry, all of the nine members of the cast played three and sometimes four roles.  Leading the field as the dominating Mrs. Reece Kate Nolan was a wonderfully bustling and bossy presence, handbag constantly in hand, even as Lady McDuff!  Compliments to Jenny Nolan, Sarah Smith and particularly Cat Blacker as the three witches. They threw themselves into their roles with gay abandon and some wonderful cackling. Jenny’s blind sword fighting after losing her glasses, Sarah in an awful dialogue loop with Mrs Reece and poor Cat sustaining more and more injuries as the show went on culminating in a wheelchair sword-fight against Macbeth - all priceless stuff.  Charlie Avison probably had the smallest part as she played only three roles!  As Minnie having lost her voice her Banquo wasn’t quite what her colleagues expected as they couldn’t hear their cues but she ploughed on regardless of the lack of sympathy.  Liz Rolph as Thelma the prima donna of the society playing Macbeth and Ross flounced and threw tantrums with the best of them. Unfortunately she was beset by unscripted prompts early in the week but this didn’t impinge too much on what was, nevertheless, a good performance.

Usually Farndale scripts call for only one man but this time there were three. Press-ganged into playing Lady Macbeth, stage manager Henry, who has already ruined the opening of the play by putting the set up back to front, provided the definitive version of the ‘Out damned spot’ scene!  Steve Beach did a great job conveying jobs-worths Henry’s discomfort at playing a woman, but he did it so well including his burst from Richard III when his memory failed.

John Mitchell as Mr. Plummer, the director coped manfully with the disaster unfolding before him. It did seem a bit unlikely though that, after nine months of rehearsals, he still didn’t realise his cast can’t act! The role appeared somewhat minor but he did have his moment of glory when Thelma walked out and he took over the lead role serving up a whole scene from Macbeth at high speed. 

Cameron Maguire as the long suffering drama festival adjudicator George Peach made the most of the role the business of which was rather scaled down from the script.  He did come into his own during his adjudication of the ladies’ efforts and looked quite glamorous in his slinky red dress and blonde wig at the end. (Don’t ask.)

Anyone who has ever participated in amateur theatre will have understood and enjoyed this show safe in the knowledge that at least nothing ever goes quite so wrong in real life. Hopefully.  Well done NOMADS and FAHETG I’m sure nobody noticed a thing

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.