Description"Actors rise to comic challenge and produce sell out success"
This play is based on an 1890's story by Oscar Wilde about Lord Arthur Savile who is engaged to Sybil Merton. Her pet chromatist Podgers has read Lord Arthur's palm and foretold he would commit a murder. Lord Arthur desires a blissful married life and therefore feels duty bound to get the murder over with first. Despite help form his butler and the cheerful anarchist Winkelkopf. attempt after attempt fails. The news comes that Podgers is a charlatan; Lord Arthur is free and the carriage awaits to take him to the wedding rehearsal. Alas, it contains Winklekopf's newest bomb. Lord Arthus saves himself by tossing it into a horse trough. As the dust settles, two policemen appear and march the unhappy young man away and another postponement notice has to be sent to The Times. Cast Baines - Clive Lumbers Lord Arthur Savile - Nigel Bacon Sybil Merton - Jane Steynor The Dean of Paddington - Paul Brown Lady Windermere - Kath Gill Lady Clementina Beauchamp - Alison Edgley Lady Julia Merton - Sheila Keatinge Mr Podgers - Scott Yarrow Nellie - Annabel Cleare Herr Winkelkopf - Charlie Edgley "Actors rise to comic challenge and produce sell out success" (Bucks Free Press review by unknown) Audiences packed the village hall for each performance of Lane End Players' production of Lord Arthur Savile's Crime proving again that good am dram really does draw the crowds. An improbable comedy by Constance Cox, based on Oscar Wilde's short story, was good entertainment, stylishly done, with superb mostly home-grown costumes and actors who rose to the challenge set by the witty dialogue. Eve Berry directed the play with panache and pace with her presentation of the Victorian setting accurate in every detail. There were some magnificent performances, notably Clive Lumbers, whose major role of Baines, the butler, was played with impressive bearing and gravitas. He provided an ideal partner to Nigel Bacon as the zany Lord Arthur, the aristocratic nincompoop who is the hero of the piece. Lord Arthur's fiancée Sybil Merton, played with charm by Jane Steynor, while his uncle the Dean of Paddington, was portrayed by the 'all gas and gaitered' Paul Brown. Kath Gill was a wondrous sight as Lady Windemere and Alison Edgley played Lady Clementina Beauchamp with elegance, wit and superb timing. Sheila Keatinge depicted the fearsome Lady Julia in a manner reminiscent of the famous Lady Bracknell. Scott Yarrow made a suitably menacing figure as the sinister Mr. Podgers, a charlatan palm-reader. The cameo role of Nellie the maid was beautifully done by Annabel Cleare. As for Herr Winkelkopf, the bomb-toting anarchist, Charlie Edgley tackled the character with true Prussian zeal, heel clicks, guttural accent and all. The audience loved him. The Lane End Players are to be warmly congratulated on a most professional production. |
Author
Constance Cox
DirectorEve Berry
VenueLane End Village Hall
Church Road Lane End Bucks HP14 3JE (see map below) |
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