The Haunted Through Lounge And Recessed Dining Nook At Farndale Castle

Performing a play-within-a-play is not an easy task. The actors must play two different styles of characters, accents and mannerisms and on switching from one to the other, often within a sentence or two, ensure that the audience knows which is which. The actors achieved this effortlessly in their production of “The Haunted Through Lounge and Recessed Dining Nook at Farndale Castle” with many funny scenes, especially those with the suitcases, telephone, and many others.  As with all the Farndale plays, the plot has two story lines running at the same time, but this never fazed the cast, especially with the complicated “Haunted Castle” plot. Great work from the cast.

It was obvious that a lot of hard work and many hours of rehearsals had gone into this very good production. The direction was well thought-out, along with the amazing lighting and sound effects to suit the haunted castle. The set design and construction by the property team all served to enhance the production.

We, the audience, were part of the Townswomen’s Guild’s introduction to their play with Thelma giving out notices and mentioning the poem reading competition at the end of the night. This surprised some members of the audience - a great start to the night.

The ladies of the Townswomen’s Guild amateur drama group decide to perform “The Haunted Castle “play. They try their best, but they are not all that good at acting. The Producer constantly loses his temper as he tries in vain to get the ladies to not only act their roles but remember their lines as well. Therefore, a lot of “prompting for the ladies.”

The ladies take on multiple roles with changes of costume, wigs, beards and moustaches as and when the characters dictate. They make appearances at the wrong time, forget their lines and with lots of over-the-top acting had the audience in fits of laughter. A childlike set had painted windows and a bookcase with a secret door that opened as and when it liked. Props were never in place when they should have been and thrown on at random by the stage crew. Lights and sound effects going on and off when they shouldn’t all added up to the TWG production going awry. 

The four female actors, Amanda Marcroft, Andrea Savage, Sandra Norburn and Andrea Eustis, played the ladies of TWG as well as the characters written for “The Haunted Castle.” They were constantly on the move and required a lot of concentration to know when and at which point to switch from the characters of “The Haunted Castle” to those of the TWG ladies. These ladies were particularly good and perfect in their roles.

In the mix we have Henry also playing “Crypt” the butler. Robert Wilson was perfect in this role and his characterisation certainly matched his name of “Crypt.” The Producer who was always losing his cool was played by Lewis Conway and he was spot-on with this character.

Thank you for the invite and congratulations to everyone involved in making this a most entertaining evening, full of laughter and enjoyed very much by both of us and the audience. Looking forward to your next production in October.

 

 

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