The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Production OF Macbeth

Ultimately people get involved in theatre to entertain people and AFDS as a big collective unit did this handsomely on Friday and the local community is a better place because of it.

On arriving at the theatre for this production which is steeped in history and received a very warm welcome from the front of house team we took our seat sin the intimate auditorium excited by the prospect of the show ahead, one which I had never even heard of until receiving the invite to come along. There is a clue in the title as to what to expect and the evening lived up to my expectations.

The pre-show entertainment got the audience involved with Gwyneth Porthcawl leading the audience in renditions of songs from The Sound Of Music, which was worth being early for and put the audience in the right frame of mind as to what was to come with the main feature.

When the curtain did open onto a small acting area, the scenery was impressively done in a minimal fashion that was in keeping with the entire presentation of the show. Scenery on a tight stage can make life difficult for the cast, Stage Manager Andy Russell and set builder Mark Palmer and their team did a very good job of getting the balance right giving a visually pleasing set whilst allowing cast freedom to do their stuff. Lighting by Paul Horsler was very good and complimented the set and created the right moods as the show flowed.

It can be quite a challenge for experienced actors to go against their natural tendencies to be professional and act the opposite without hamming things up too much and almost falling into pantomime. I was very pleased that this talented cast balanced this very well throughout.

The central female characters all held their self-important roles throughout of being ladies of the townswomen’s guild with secret cravings for a career on the stage, this was impressively portrayed throughout by Sarah Benjamin in the role of Thelma who was Macbeth. During her time on the stage as Macbeth Sarah was exceedingly convincing with her ‘This is my big chance’ portrayal of Shakespeare’s character.

Skye Nichol in the role of Kate was very impressive and the comedy element she brought to life with her injuries was very entertaining, especially the wheelchair scene when having to steer around the stage one handed was done sublimely well extracting plenty of laugh from the audience without milking it, a very difficult balance to get just right.

Mark Tuck was very good value with his portrayal of the adjudicator and had the audience with him from the start.

Mick Platt in the role of Henry the stage hand was a favourite of the audience from the moment he put up the fire exit sign during a speech, his character is latterly pressganged, perhaps a little easily, into playing the part of Lady Macbeth. Mick played this aspect of the role in a style akin to Monty Python and I found myself willing him to say, “He’s a very naughty boy”., 

Special mention must go to the Director Samantha Golton who alsdo played the role of Ms Plummer who was the stage manager for the production of Macbeth and kept exactly the right balance of trying to for her job whilst herding cats around the stage, very well handled and the speedy part at the end was very good.

My only slightly negative thoughts towards this production was that on a few occasions, usually during hectic action on the stage, the diction and projection went slightly making it more difficult than it should have been to follow through those small passages.

In summary this was a very enjoyable evening of very well-presented live theatre, well done to all concerned.

Congratulations to Director Samatha Golton and all involved.

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