The Art of Coarse Acting Part Deux

Coarse acting can involve use of inappropriate props and costumes, mis-timed entrances, forgotten lines, collapsing scenery, missed cues and foul-ups with lighting equipment and sound systems. The resulting productions can be tremendously funny and cause uncontrollable mirth among audiences who appreciate it takes considerable practice to get things wrong as well as right. 

The Over Players are no strangers to Michael Green’s coarse acting plays having already demonstrated their skills in this particular genre. Three plays, three sets of scenery and three sets of technical requirements.  All sets (designed by Alan Kenney and Alex Turpin) were good and appropriate to each play and doors and windows worked as they should have. Well done Chris Glenton (lighting) and Mike Bernard (sound) everything was spot on (or not) just as intended. Super job technically.

The evening was “padded out” with links between the plays from the Vicar (Richard Fenwick) trying to raise funds for St Sepulchre’s church and a couple of intervals which gave everyone time to refresh glasses etc and spot that the lucky programmes all had the same number. 

Helen Scully made her directing debut with Streuth in which Tim Hegan took on the role of the Inspector in an endeavour to solve a murder, ably assisted by other stoic cast members and a (sometimes headless) corpse.  This piece is very short, not much more than 15 minutes, so the actors didn’t really have chance to get their teeth into the script but managed the interminable (scripted) dialogue loop very cleverly before the stage manager took pity on them with an early curtain.

 Philip Law & George Kirkman joined forces to direct Il Fornicazione an opera cleverly conducted by Tess Kilvington-Shaw because, as the rest of the orchestra had crashed into the River Ouse, they were accompanied by only a triangle which was begrudgingly played by Sue White who had come on her bike!  Emma Matthews and Olly Hockin were in excellent voice as the Countess Formaggio and Alfonso respectively and were well matched by Chas (I die!) Barclay as Count Formaggio.  This trio was ably supported by Margaret Dougherty as the Maid and a huge number of suitably attired Huntsmen.  There were some great props courtesy of Alex Turpin. Loved the cardboard tankards and the Huntsmen’s “kill”.  This was great fun and we found out that the cause of Count Fromaggio’s death was definitely  “the mushrooms, they were poisoned”! 

The final play Fenside Story was written by John Lamoon, in the same style as the Coarse Acting plays and skilfully directed by Alex Turpin.  This was a cleverly remastered version of West Side Story set in Chatteris where The Jags and The Pikes were at war about the new A14 development.  The entire cast of this play had all been in one or both of the first two.  More musical than Streuth and more dialogue than Il Fornicazione which gave all involved the opportunity to show their worth.  

Congratulations to the three directors and the assistant director. The pace of each of the plays was well maintained and the individuality of each play was well achieved. The actors subscribed to the genre fully, letting the humour come from the scripts without hamming it up unnecessarily.

The evening closed with a Traditional Fenland Folk Dance choreographed by Mandy Turpin.  This turned out to be a Fen version of the famous River Dance with the cast in the true Fen costume of raincoats and wellies. 

Well done all concerned it was a great giggle and being the time of year, despite a delayed start, we still drove most of the way home in the daylight.

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