We found love and an Exquiste Set of Porcelain Figurines Aboard The SS Farndale Avenue

Well what a show, I was laughing before the play got started.  Carol Keen was always in the driving seat, playing several parts: Beauregard St Clair, Lilian,Steward, Mavis Smith, Captain Brown, a jolly Tar, and Mrs Reece. Mrs Reece was like the Chairman of the group who were performing a play, and she was having problems getting the play started.  When they did get the play under way we were on the deck off  SS Farndale Avenue, when Gordon, the long-suffering stage manager, appeared as Gwendolyn dressed in what looked like a negligee, and hastily left the stage. Gordon was played excellently by Jeff Surma throughout the play. At the outset they were going to have  disco but Mrs  Reece  told them to go and come back later.

Martina McCollum was excellent as Felicity, and also had more parts. She played the running about roles as Daisy, Cicely, Captain Jones Porter, and part of the Jolly Tar group. To complete the cast Zoe Mather played the “Tarty Part”, Constance Lombard, very well indeed. As usual in these types of comedies something always goes wrong, and in this case the ship got shipwrecked.

The second half began in black light and we had all sorts of different types of fish swimming across the stage, some swimming backwards and hastily turned round to swim forwards.  They were rescued by Captain Porter who saw them safely back on land. This play was absolutely hilarious and very typical of the Farndale Avenue plays.  I have always wanted to know who wrote the plays, and the programme told us it was David McGillivary and Walter Zerlin Jnr. They really know how to make the audiences laugh. Well done St Augustine's

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.