The Toad Society

Many thanks to the Ribchester Amateur Theatre Society for inviting me to see their production of The Toad Society which was performed at the Ribchester Village Hall on Friday 23rd November 2023. This play is of comedy in nature & tells the adventures of four quirky members of the Toad Society who venture on their first social event. Written by John Waterhouse, this play is split into 2 very separate acts, which have before produced specifically as thus, the first set in the home of one of our 4 members of the society & the second act on a campsite where the adventure continues.  

Directed by Hannah Murray & Craig Jackson the play was presented well, using multiple styles of comedy; physical, character driven, text driven. All these together produced an entertaining evening indeed. The characterisations which were displayed were satirical and had just about the right dimensionality to ensure the audience were engaged with their narrative, but also belly laughed at the display of the characterisations, If I’m 100% honest, I got lost in the second half of the production, perhaps a result of a drop in place and continuity, which I think made me miss the point of the play, but nonetheless, I was laughing along with all of the audience members from start to finish. I loved the minutia detail brought into the action and the moments of stillness which allowed some form of digestion & rest from the high energy production.  

The set design for the first act was fabulous, it was the lounge room of Norman, with bright orange walls with ornaments and décor just as spectacular for our amphibian loving friend. It lent itself to some of the staging, for example, places for characters to hide, yet be seen & entrance ways to other areas of the house and a front door. The campsite was a completely different aesthetic, representing the location well with a less flamboyant saturation of colour and tents and a campfire which enables the storyline. The lighting was simplistic yet worked well for the production, I really liked the thematic change of lighting & staging for when the ritual ‘toad anthem’ was sung. Costumes were detailed and fit the characters & the context of the production well. 

Now to the cast, holistically I would like to thank the 4 actors for their performances and energy, the contrast and similarities in the characterisations and energies were a perfect match for ensuring the moments of comedy were brought about to their fullest. There was such a nice rapport between all the actors and as an entire ensemble did a tremendous job. John Royle played the role of Norman who was the founder of the Toad Society & who hosted the social event at his home. His characterisation was played quite dry which was well placed as added dimension to the ensemble. He used great internalisation to portray this. He doubled up in the second act playing an American Konos, using a good contrasting character, not only through accent, but also through physicality. Lisa LLoyd played the quirky Alice, who was a bundle of joy to watch onstage, full of idiosyncratic mannerisms and gestures which brought great comedic moments. The amount of energy she instilled into the drama was admirable. Similarly, Nick Saward played Herbert who was also a quirky character with the same descriptives as Lisa’s above. Nick also added further light & shade into his performance which enabled further relatability which helped deliberate some of the narrative. Finally, Charlotte Green played the flirtatious and assured Natasha which again was an interesting dynamic to the other characterisations & physicalised some of the innuendos instilled in the script. She doubled up as Annabelle in the second act and did so using the same characterisation but with a French accent and an addition of a form of scalf, which worked well as the text referred to confusion of identity, and so translated well to the audience. 

Thanks once again to the Ribchester Amateur Theatre Society for great evening of comedy which was well received from all the audience. Wishing you all the best for your future productions.

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