The Farndale Avenue, Housing Estate, Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society Production of “A Christmas Carol”

It was a privilege to visit Bedworth and see this production by a Company with a great many talents.

This was play within a play and my understanding is that this is one of a set of eight. Looking forward to the next few.

The play comprised of twelve actors playing multiple roles under the direction of Alison Chattaway.

There was a small amount of audience participation at the start led to believe that two actors had not arrived and they were asked to take part. For example, snowman lost his head, used coat hanger as a pen, stage hands heard over the mike, police notices coming in over the microphone, mishaps with the script as they could only read part of it.

It is not easy to act making mistakes, but all the cast performed well and their interpretations were appreciated by all of us there. The audience thoroughly enjoying what they saw and heard.

Very difficult to highlight any actor as so many roles were undertaken by them all but need to highlight Scrooge and Mrs Reece who kept the story together and brought the audience into the tale.

Lighting and sound were impeccable there was no problem with diction and lighting was excellent. Given the lack of facilities at the centre I felt that the Director managed to bring in scene changes which were compatible with some of the larger stage sets. I did appreciate the digital scene changes which worked really well given there is no opportunity to use stage cloths. The switch to the graveyard scene was very effective and the use of the floor space was made full advantage of during the whole of the performance.

The names of the actors taking part:

Duane Hilton, Kathryn Griffiths, Richard Nicholls, David Robertson, Matthew Chattaway, Tasha Rowley, Ciaran Duggan, Frankie Birt, Stella Niblock, Colin Udall, Ginia Tennant, Rebecca Kear.

Well done to the company for another entertaining evening. I would be happy to travel to Bedworth even if not as a NODA rep as their performances are so enjoyable.

Thank you for your very kind invite.

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