Round and Round the Garden

Arriving at the Brewhouse on Gala Night the audience were greeted by a red carpet, paparazzi and an assortment of critics, barflies and society guests (all members of the company in role) setting the scene for an authentic 70’s moment in time along with live music in the bar. Once in the auditorium and joined by the entourage of 70’s time travellers the absorption into Alan Ayckbourn’s world in a spoof final night of Chiswick and Mortlake Players’ 25th Anniversary Revival Tour of the play (the finale of the Norman Conquest trilogy) began.

As the tabs opened on the box set there was spontaneous applause, a suburban garden greeted us along with a Grecian God standing proud although the brambles had begun to invade his turf. The garden was rather a tidy spot and the token brambles did help to impale Norman but more weeds and brambles would have truly given us the impression of overgrown chaos which Annie alluded to during the opening moments. We soon discovered that the spontaneous applause was not just for the set but also for the entrance of each performer, very 70’s TV studio (minus the canned laughter), this was led by the entourage and the audience although a little confused to begin with soon fell into the rhythm of applauding each new actor as they were introduced to the piece.

There was a  rather tentative approach until Norman blundered in through the gate, he brought life and vibrancy to the first act which supported the other players delivery and the company confidence developed more assurance and ease once he arrived. A highlight of the act was Normans’ conversation with Reg about relationships which dispelled the awkwardness of the earlier conversations and brought the comedy to the fore. In Act Two Ruth his long suffering wife arrived and her comic timing and ease of delivery helped the play race along to its conclusion. There were some highly amusing moments, Norman and Annie’s romp on the grass and the total confusion over who wanted to be with who caused much hilarity, Sarah’s prim act which she couldn’t contain was also great fun.

Thespians had worked hard in creating a quirky evening and the audience were thrown back to the early days of the Brewhouse when plays like this engaged the people of Taunton regularly, approaching the presentation of plays in a different way to just arriving at the theatre certainly got the audience in the mood, may be this is the way forward and will bring the audiences flocking in….I hope so.

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