They Came From Mars and Landed Outside the Farndale Avenue Church Hall

Extra-terrestrials came to visit Writtle and interrupt the lives of locals on a dark spring evening to the delights of a warm audience. The Farndale Plays continue with this eclectic blend of characters who are as intent on cooking the perfect cake and announcing the winner of the flower arranging competition as thrilling their patrons with an out of this world experience which had a vague storyline of a Martian kidnapping Mrs Tompkins/Roberta the robot to keep her as a guide on Mars. Cue the insanity.

Mrs Reece played by Sharon Goodwin gave us a gushing introduction to the evening’s performance before slipping into her role as Professor Einstein complete with party shop wig to convince us of her character.

The stage was soon cluttered with whatever was dug out of the props cupboard along with the costumes to tell their story.

Katharine Thomas gave us the perfect Townswomen’s Guild member as Felicity, who was unfortunately dosed with enough Valium to floor a horse and spent the remainder of the production semi-comatose and carried about the stage in typical slapstick fashion. Not an easy feat whilst also dressed as a robot.

Jerry Thomas entertained us in his role as Gordon and Reverend Allsop, giving his all as the only male actor in the ensemble. His physical comedy and off beat comic timing was perfect, delivering excruciating canned laughter and reading his stage directions aloud amongst his dialogue.

Clare Williams played Norah and spent most of her time stumbling about as Indesit the Martian wearing a green motorcycle helmet and matching jumpsuit with a child’s laser gun. Her portrayal was truly cringe-worthy for all the right reasons. She could have stepped out of the set of a 1960’s Doctor Who episode, as could have the set in the opening of the second half, with crudely painted stars and spaceships in UV paint lit by a black-light. This sequence was very funny, but maybe went on for slightly too long. The strobe lighting was also guilty of this, as I had to look away for a bit and couldn’t see my notes for a while after. Maybe the concept was to actually put stars in my eyes!

Jodee Goodwin perhaps had the more difficult role as Jimmy (a young lad) and Susan Allsop, as well as Thelma. She differentiated the characters very well, with enough physical energy to convince she was a (appropriately badly cast) young boy and a lover lacking in an actor for her love, Jack. What ensued was wonderful romantic scene, all on her own.  Great comedy.

Highlights for me were the appropriately themed space music, the light sabre fight (ingenious) and the panto-esque physical comedy portrayed by every cast member. The lighting effects were really spot on, with the crew as part of the illusion when it all went wrong, and really added to the eccentricity of this production.  The asides removing you from the’ enthralling’ storyline of ‘They Came from Mars’  and back into the Town’s Women’s Guild’s Coffee Morning were well timed, leaving the audience’s heads spinning in trying to keep up with what was actually happening next. Local references are always guaranteed to get the audience on your side (mentioning your NODA rep also works!), and the director made a good job of keeping the production on track with a level of controlled madness. The pace did drop a little in the second half and a few prompts were taken, but if these had been incorporated into the story itself (maybe with a ‘thank you dear!’ thrown to the prompt), I would have been none the wiser if these were intentional or not. The stage hands also deserve some credit for keeping the obscure furniture under control as well as the actors. This was the worst of amdram at its Best, and a real riotous night out.

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