How Does Your Garden Grow

The opening music of 'English Country Garden' segued nicely into 'There may be trouble ahead...' and set the scene well.  The curtains opened onto a set representing the lobby of a failing hotel, with a reception desk stage right, a well-stocked bar area (with working optics) stage left, and a sofa and coffee table centre stage.  The presence of the (quite large) coffee table slightly reduced the playing area of this rather small stage: perhaps it would have been possible to omit this piece of furniture to give the actors more space.  Entrances left and right were archways, and the entrance at the back was partially covered by a curtain.  Once or twice I was confused by actors leaving through one exit but entering through another, but the timing of entrances (which is absolutely essential in farces) was excellent.  The small stage made too much movement difficult and at times this led to actors standing centre stage for rather too long, although the sofa was used to good effect to vary the height and position of the actors.

The period of the play wasn't obvious, but we felt it must be in 'the present'.  Costumes were appropriate, and the undressing scenes were well-handled.  Nathan Pond's wig was suitable and worn well.  Props seemed authentic and well-used.  Great care had been taken to attach a new front page to a newspaper.

Lighting was good and we were able to see the entire stage well.  There were blackouts between scenes, but these were brief and well managed.  The front microphones helped to enhance the sound, but in any case, projection by the actors was good.  There was a delayed telephone ring in Act 1, which was well managed by the actor (Mrs Fenton).

Farce relies on good rhythm and very fast pace: there needs to be a sense that events are spinning out of control.  A good rhythm was established in Act 1, but this seemed to be lost in Act 2, when there were quite a few prompts taken, and this contributed to a slowing of the pace.  All actors lose the odd line - this is inevitable and generally accepted by audiences.  However, actors can sometimes be too reliant on the presence of a Prompt, and if this happens it has a detrimental effect on the production.  Perhaps this group could experiment in rehearsal with not having a Prompt and instead, for the actors to see if they can help each other out of trouble when lines are dropped.  Even if you wish to keep a Prompt for performance, this is a useful exercise as it tends to sharpen the actors' reactions and leads to a more cohesive cast who all have to take responsibility for each other's lines, instead of just their own!

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