The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society’s Production of Macbeth

This is one of a series of plays about the above mentioned Dramatic Society’s productions.  The cack-handed actors face a series of disasters as they attempt to put on a production. Ham acting abounds, jokes are exceedingly corny, confusion and chaos reigns.

The purpose-built Nomad Theatre in East Horsley is very well-equipped with always a superb view of the stage. A large bar makes it easy to socialise. Front of House staff always offer a warm welcome.

The well-designed programme offered a good Director’s Note and interesting cast profiles. We even had a couple of cooking recipes!

The set was simple, just two castle archways. A constantly breaking table, a wheelchair, a cauldron or two, a jar of jam, some mean-looking daggers that seemed to have a life of their own, some swords, a moon on ropes, a monkey, a severed head on a rope, likewise a bird and a doll. A piece of long electric flex, some crutches, a cabbage and a lemon meringue pie!  But why the monkey, I wondered?

Of course the lighting went wrong in all the right (or wrong?) places.  I enjoyed the changing colours of the backdrop. Sound effects were good and suitably over the top, with a tremendous thunderstorm, some eerie sounds on the appearance of the ghost, and not a mournful tolling bell, but a jaunty door bell. Various pieces of inappropriate music, eg ‘Old Black Magic’ played a role too.

Various bits of tartan appeared, draped over shoulders usually.  The witches’ costumes were good with impressive hats and even more impressive noses. Mr Peach, the adjudicator, wowed us twice, with his slick suit and jazzy waistcoat, then the transformation into long ball gown, impeccable makeup and fetching bouffant wig as he was off to a ball following the show!

The cast did their best, and obviously had a lot of fun, but I’m not convinced this series of plays has stood the test of time. The gags are not particularly funny, time has moved on, and there are now many more plays where everything goes wrong.

The play is a mickey-take of VERY amateur dramatic societies. These Farndale Avenue folk miss their cues, stumble about, talk to each other in loud whispers, forget their lines, get them mixed up, push each other about, and so on.

To play this successfully is a real challenge, whilst still getting the most out of the corny gags. Deliberately playing something wrong is not easy!

There was much visual humour in the piece. The moon fell down. The table legs kept collapsing at key moments in important speeches. Poor Kate, one of the 3 witches, who had her leg in plaster, kept getting shunted around in her wheelchair and bashing into things, thus injuring herself still further. A severed head descended on a rope and kept waving about. A lemon meringue pie ended up in Lady Macbeth’s face. And so on.

Everything that can go wrong in this play does go wrong. As well as the set facing the wong way round for the first ten minutes, forgotten lines, a lot of very obvious prompting, sound effects coming in too early or too late, spectacles getting lost so murder scenes go awry, the leading lady’s thunder getting stolen, and much much more. I kept comparing it to the wonderful ‘Noises Off’  I saw at the Nomads a decade or so or more. ‘Noises Off’ is a very clever and witty play. The Farndale Avenue series, sadly, to my mind, is not in the same league.

The team put in some good solid performances. I shall mention in particular Henry/Lady Macbeth, who acting skills notably improved as he reluctantly took on this starring role when the real performer took the wrong bus or something and couldn’t make it in time. I read in the programme that this was Alfie Cooper’s first performance with the Nomads. It would be nice to see him again at some future date.

The team managed very well to create the necessary mayhem. The post interval raffle raised a chuckle, and provided a bit of light relief from the chaotic attempt at Shakespeare.

The audience, as well as the cast, enjoyed the fun, and left the theatre bemused and amused.

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