“I wish to God they were professionals. Then I could sack them.” Read more …
Nothing if not ambitious, the Pendon Amateur Light Operatic Society is taking on The Beggar’s Opera. And The Beggar’s Opera is winning . . . until, that is, a personable but shy widower, Guy Jones, joins the team...
Despite being an instant hit with the company’s energetic, excitable director, Dafydd Llewellyn, and PALOS’s female members - including Dafydd’s wife, Hannah - the inexperienced Guy seems destined for a spot in the chorus. But then a series of casting mishaps propel Guy up the PALOS ladder - on and off the stage. And as he climbs closer and closer to the top, Guy - a man all too susceptible to wine, women and song - discovers that there are downsides to being a big fish in a small pond...
Alan Ayckbourn is the most popular and most often performed living playwright at PFT. Hailed by some as his greatest play, A Chorus Of Disapproval is also the funniest and most wickedly accurate portrait of am dram life ever created. Not seen on PFT’s stage since 1995, this acclaimed, laugh-out-loud comedy is guaranteed to be one of the stars of 2013!
There was certainly no chorus of disapproval from the packed house.
Richard Baron’s formidable 14-strong company make a fine job of interpreting the play for a 21st century audience, in a production that thoroughly enjoys the play’s double vision – the backstage crises, and the show itself – of church-hall dramatics at their most passionate.
While I admire Ayckbourn for his support of young playwrights and directors, I have long considered him to be the most overrated of playwrights. This aptly named, decidedly laboured comedy does nothing to alter my opinion.
Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Pitlochry from Saturday June 1, 2013, until Thursday October 17, 2013. More info: www.pitlochry.org.uk