The Younger Brother

What a lovely, fresh and inviting venue - All Saints Church in Canterbury. The width of the airy sizeable church building accommodated the fixed stage for our afternoon’s entertainment. The accommodation was both welcoming and intriguing, with excellent acoustics. The excellent stage set’s architecture and period furniture gave us the clue that aristocracy was to feature in our afternoon’s entertainment.

The play opened very calmly with the arrival of George Marteen – played by Aaron Colgate – who was to be excellent as the younger brother of the rakish Sir Merlin and son of Sir Rowlan Marteen. Calm and steadfast...but a bit of a rogue! Well actually as I recall all the men were rogues! And – what a wonderful crowd of men they were! There were buffoons, rakes, lovers and the jilted. Everyone of them totally engaged and entertained us. Not one of them dropped out of character. Similarly, the ladies of the cast looked to be thoroughly enjoying their characters and the obvious romp that opened up before us. There was dancing, random - opportunist kissing, oh yes - and singing and raucous laughter (the laughter was from us in the audience). Everyone on stage was totally engaged in their craft – much to our, the audience’s, delight. A special congratulations to Val Maysey – your costumes were gorgeous and truly appropriate. Similarly the dance, the responsibility of Jeevan Kennedy, was delightful. 

John Moss, Director, is to be congratulated for realising this wonderful entertainment. No doubt with support from the editor and consultant Stewart Ross, who sourced the play and worked the magic with translating the manuscript’s intentions. Your players and crew did you proud.To add ,it was written by Aphra Behn in 1696 - a female playwright!

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.