The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townwomen's Guild Dramatic Socirty's production of "A Christmas Carol"

The scripts for the Productions of  The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townwomens’s Guild Dramatic  Society’s Productions are hilarious and very cleverly written by David McGillivray and Walter Zerlin Jnr.     This play “ A Christmas Carol’ was very well directed by John Savage and the seven strong cast worked well together to give the audience a most enjoyable evening’s entertainment.

We were immediately drawn into the action as Jenny Blyth as Mrs Reece announced that some members of the cast were late in arriving and she needed understudies from the audience. This immediately captured our attention and from thereon we were soon involved with the iconic tale of “Ebenezer Scrooge”.

It needed a very accomplished backstage crew for this production and congratulations must go to Yvonne Clavin and Lucy Schofield for excellent continuity involving scene changes with appropriate well constructed props. Anne Havill, who was responsible for sound, was kept very busy throughout and she was so important to the success of the evening as much of the comedy stemmed from her work. Appropriate lighting, (Rachelle Savage and Denis Morgans) enhanced the mayhem on stage. The invaluable work of the technical crew is so often overlooked and yet is essential to the success of any production.    We, the audience thoroughly enjoyed the catastrophies and problems facing members of the cast who must have found it difficult to play their roles whilst keeping a straight face.                                                     Linda Bee as Thelma playing Ebenezer Scrooge was particularly convincing in her confrontations with Mrs Reece.     Jenny Blyth was outstanding as Mrs Reece,  and also played Tiny Tim, Fred’s wife, a gentleman and the Ghost of Christmas yet to come showing her obvious experience and considerable talent.

It is not easy to play roles in this genre but this Company ensured that the pace never faltered and the audience left with a smile on their faces, a sure sign of a successful evening.        This was my first visit to this company and I look forward to their future Productions. Thank you for the warm welcome to my wife and myself.

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