Show: Romance and Riots
Society: Beaufort Players
Venue: Church of the Ascension Hall
Credits: Jane Quill, Kaiser Siddiqui & Thomas Cobb
Type: Sardines
Author: Andrea Richardson
Performance Date: 25/11/2021
Romance & Riots – An Evening of Original Drama
Andrea Richardson | 29 Nov 2021 05:17am
Our stages sadly went dark for such a long time due to lockdown, so I was very pleased to be welcomed back to Beaufort Players for their first production since theatres were allowed to reopen.
They wisely chose to keep their returning production simple with minimal sets and original pieces written by group members that meant costs were also kept low. So we were offered “Romance and Riots – An Evening of Original Drama”.
Act 1 was “Day of the Rope” written and directed by Jane Quill. This was a dramatic retelling of the events of January 2021 when the Capitol Building in Washington DC was attacked by mobs of Trump supporters in protest at the result of the 2020 Presidential Election. The words used in the play were transcripts from people who were there that day. This presented both the Trump supporters’ reasons for planning the attack, and the reactions of the police and federal officers following the event. Accompanying the script were sights and sounds from the day on a screen, and the voice of Trump as he encouraged the protesters to riot. It was surprisingly harrowing to see and hear these again. Overall this was an excellent play. The accents were (mostly) maintained throughout. There was swearing but it was in keeping with the subject. The crowd scenes could have done with better choreography and were a little messy at times. Most emotional were the final speeches from the law enforcement officers telling the Select Committee about the abuse the experienced – definitely brought a tear to the eye.
Act 2 was “Henry VIII on Blind Date” written and directed by Kaiser Siddiqui. After the death of wife number three, Henry decides to go on the classic game show Blind Date. On paper, this is a great concept and had potential to be amusing. For some reason this did not quite hit the right note with this reviewer. The humour was there but it didn’t land quite right. There were some nice historical references to the three potential dates and their connections to Henry. I enjoyed the Duke of Norfolk in the role of ‘Cilla’. For some reason the actor portraying Henry performed it (or was directed to perform it) almost like a caricature of Sid James in a Carry On film, and his voice level was not consistent. We found this somewhat distracting and missed several lines which were ‘chewed up’. Generally well performed by all but a somewhat awkward piece. Kudos for the set design though – the set and lighting was very effective.
Act 3 was “The Importance of Being Brief”, written and directed by Thomas Cobb. Distilled from the well known play by Oscar Wilde, this was a compressed version of the original, in one act. This was very entertaining and cleverly written.Having played the role of Lady Bracknell, I was delighted to hear so many of her lines retained, as she really does have some of the funniest ones. All the actors performed well, though special mention to the actress playing three roles and making the most of the humour in that. This was well paced and there was excellent use of the set, with a simple flip of a flat to switch between locations. Costumes also looked wonderful.
Congratulations to the cast, crew and behind the scenes team, and thank you for an entertaining evening.
- : admin
- : 25/11/2021