Fumblings at Friar's Bottom

‘Fumbling’s at Friar’s Bottom’ at St Pauls Drama Group this weekend was a good attempt to keep us cool, but it was heavy going for both the audience and the cast, I found it very slow in places, needed to be quicker pick up on dialogue. There were some good performances, especially from Breanna Gardinar who kept her French accent throughout with a nice characterisation; also Derek Elmore, Sam Digby, Nick Swain, (Narrator) Jon and Robin Selmes, Kathy Milner, Sally Murphy, Ester Murphy (Ester wasn’t having interruptions in her dialogue. Great control Ester), Lorraine Camp and Mel Newman. Sorry but this wasn’t one of St Paul’s best, I’m surprized at this, St Pauls always come up trumps with the plays I have seen in the past. Some comedy lines were lost because of the slowness of the dialogue and some cast needed prompting.

I could see that Emma Everitt and Keith Jackson as directors had put a lot of direction into Fumbling’s and the staging was good, but was this the fault of whoever choose the play not thinking it through enough? The direction was there but wasn’t being used by some actors. This is the first time I have visited St Paul’s and been disappointed. But stage management and props were excellent as were costumes by those involved. Sorry St Paul’s but you have a huge amount of talent, but this play wasn’t for your group. Please please remember this is only my opinion. Sometimes this happens, but you all looked as if you were enjoying yourselves and that is what matters, but that must come over to your audiences and I’m sorry this time it didn’t. 

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