The Canterbury Tales

THE CANTERBURY TALES   Or…Geoffrey Chaucer’s Flying Circus

Presented by

Stone Revellers Musical Theatre

Stone Revellers never seem to rest, certainly not on their laurels anyway, they have several projects underway this year yet to come.

Their latest offering, The Canterbury Tales, Or Geoffrey Chaucer’s Flying Circus is hot on the tail of Madness Musical ‘Our House’ and it couldn’t be further away from the previous production if it tried, although madness certainly was an aspect akin to both.

Burton Bumgarner’s (that must be an anagram, sadly it illudes me for the moment) play, is a collection of highly cautionary stories, or tales if you will, with the emphasis heavily on the maniacal comedic elements generated by the tellers. We’re almost talking Aesop on LSD.

A Pilgrimage to Canterbury is decided upon. To pass the time it is suggested by the landlord for each member of said pilgrimage to tell an entertaining tale, with a prize being awarded for the best.

Landlord and Tale Judge Harry Bailey, Jason Whitehurst, who portrayed it with an acerbic dry wit, reminiscent of Peter Kaye in its delivery, whose interactions with the scene title changing snail paced Lazy Stage Manager, Nichola Abbott were ‘Two Soups’ funny.

Alex MacIvor as the continuously, bored, snacking, and suffering somewhat from writers block Geoffrey Chaucer, further fed Harry’s exasperation, urging some focus on Geoffrey’s completion of the story.

Out of a cast of eight players these three above got off rather lightly, leaving the remaining five of Dawn Huxley, Carly Smith, Joseph Jenkinson, Charl Andrews and Dave Parton an endless array of characters to play, which must be said they seemed to effortlessly transform through the myriad facades, as each of the individual Tellers sally forth with their particular Tale.

I particularly liked The Knight’s Tale, set in the Wild West with jousting cowboys complete with Monty Python’s Holy Grail coconut clopping horse accompaniment, it was just crazy. Also, the scenes featuring a commercially motivated actor were laugh out loud funny.

The personas, accents, and character traits each of the cast bought to the stage were well considered and presented. I loved Her Majesty’s accent in the Wife of Bath’s Tale, which also led to some enlightening audience participation.

Director and Landlord Jason Whitehurst, challenged his cast to bring their best, dig deep into their arsenal of character and acting chops, which they certainly delivered to the audience. The use of sliding images into a stage window was quite ingenious to.

The many, many costumes, and props, together with the sound and lighting were exactly as required.

The Revellers also delivered an excellent chip supper in the extended interval, what more could you ask for?

A very different offering from the last, and no doubt future shows to come this year, it’s what makes groups like Revellers so enjoyable to watch.

Definite madness in the oh so crazy script, with its huge nods to The Python team, which needed a strong cast to carry it off, and you know they did.

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