The Addams Family

Some of us can recall the original “Addams Family” in the television series of the sixties and the films of the nineties and it was interesting, to say the least, to renew contact with that dysfunctional and mysterious family. All those eerie characters were resurrected in the dim and intimate confines of the Paisley Arts Centre, some of the audiences seeing those strange beings for the first time and others, as it were, renewing old acquaintanceships. As the show opens, the Addams family is about to meet another family for dinner but as the evening wears on, one begins to wonder which of the families is the more strange! The pallid Morticia Addams is perhaps one of the best remembered characters from the TV series and Alannah Ferguson as Morticia gave a chilling portrayal of the mother of the family. The daughter Wednesday Addams (Megan Pattie) described elsewhere as “an irresistible bundle of malice” has her sights set on Lucas Bieneke (Fraser Robertson) son of the more normal of the two families with Nicola Scougall in the role of his mother Alice Bieneke. No family, however odd, is complete without a strange uncle and Ross Moynihan in the most weird and appropriate make-up fulfilled that role as Uncle Fester, ultimately bound for the moon.  The two fathers Gomez Addams (Lewis Compston) and Mal Bieneke (Ben McGuire) appeared to have no option but to go with the flow of events and likewise, Max Burns as Pugsley Addams in his first appearance with the Group. David McKenzie took the role of Lurch, the Addams’ family butler(?) and certainly had no difficulty with his words! Johnstone Phoenix Youth Theatre is the first Company in District No 4 to present this new show, but I am sure it will find a following elsewhere as it has a dark but clever and amusing script.
 

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