BANG! YOU'RE DEAD!

BANG! YOU'RE DEAD!

Little Baddow Drama Club at the Memorial Hall

25.04.15

Zombies, a false-bottomed handbag, a part-time pole-dancer and a falling chandelier.

None of these, alas, appeared in this whodunnit, though they did feature in the audience suggestions collected during the interval.

This is the second murder mystery Little Baddow have presented, and, as before, the action is halted at a key moment to allow the audience's imagination free rein as they confer over the sausage rolls and battenberg.

Paul Reakes' play is an unlikely tale of infidelity, in which the masked intruder [Martin Lucas] is not all he seems. Nor is Theo Spink [John Peregrine] whose home is burgled, or his vamp of a wife [Heather Lucas]. Frumpish spinster Amelia Trim [perfectly characterised by Vicky Tropman], birthday girl, holds the key to the ridiculous dénouement, thwarting the deviant designs of Theo and the poor man's Raffles …

A most entertaining format, with the “comedy-thriller” ably directed by Lindsay Lloyd.

THE CREATURE CREEPS

THE CREATURE CREEPS

Little Baddow Drama Club

at the Memorial Hall

20.11.2014

This Gothic comedy was penned back in '77 by Jack Sharkey, onetime jokes editor of Playboy.

“Dreadful is a relative term”, and his often clever spoof of the Transylvanian genre has many witty touches, and is amusingly self-referential. But it runs out of comedy steam a little towards the end, as the characters sit around listening to explanations of what's been afoot.

Director Kenton Church [who also dresses up to play the various Shtunken brothers] has assembled an excellent cast, including some stalwarts and several new faces. The range of accents is breathtaking. We're in the Carpathians, I think, but there are Americans, including the daughter of the Home Counties Baroness and her Mad Scientist spouse.

The piece really needs brazen, bold performances, and some actors achieve this better than others here. Peter White is excellent as the deformed Mord, as is Sylvia Lanz as the prim Teutonic housekeeper, knocking back tots of schnapps.

John Peregrine is the mysterious von Blitzen, with Rita Ronn as an imposing grande dame [beautifully turned out, as are many of the women characters]. The youthful US contingent is well handled by Sarah Trippett-Jones, Heather Lucas and James Oakley.

The sound effects [phonograph horns high on the castle walls] are brilliantly done in the manner of steam radio, and the set, with its tiny fenestrals affording a glimpse of figures on the stairs, magically makes this tiny stage into a cavernous baronial hall.

BUILDING BLOCKS

BUILDING BLOCKS

Little Baddow Drama at the Memorial Hall

30.04.2014

Bob Larbey's soft-core sitcom tells a familiar tale of broken promises, missed deadlines and endless tea-breaks – awakening painful memories for anyone who has ever had the builders in.

Ken Rolf's assured production has a splendidly solid set, complete with scaffolding and a cement mixer, as well as a very convincing cast of characters.

Little Baddow veteran John Peregrine plays David, glib boss of the local construction company, erecting a baroque edifice of excuses and placating his frustrated customers with gamebirds, rabbits and oysters. His men – boasting builders' bellies and boots – were excellently done by James Oakley as Mark, the wryly comic John Mabey as Piper, and Mike Gordon as the elusive chippie Brian, using his newly sharpened tools to construct a ham sandwich.

The young couple – who want an extension to welcome their new baby – were Martin Lucas as the wimpish, spineless schoolteacher Jim, and Sara Thompson as his long-suffering wife Mary; the look on her face as she returned triumphant from her pregnancy test was a touching, memorable moment in a piece not long on subtlety.

And I liked the three lads on the garden bench, gently mocking their guvnor, as well as the thoughtful epilogue on the same bench, with the builders gone, the extension complete, and a calmer future as a family to look forward to.

production photograph by Barry Weight

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

Little Baddow Drama at the Memorial Hall

20.11.13

Jim Hutchon was at the first night -

Alison Woollard’s refreshing version of A Christmas Carol took the Little Baddow Players back to basics, and stripped out much of the dross that has accumulated on this classic over the years. With a simple, soaring set – a trademark of the director – they were able to create spectacular tableaux punctuating the action.

John Peregrine’s Scrooge revelled in his badness, though his conversion from “Bah Humbug” to “Go buy a turkey” was a bit sudden. His nephew, Fred (Paul Bonnici) was persuasive. Especially convincing was Steve Holding, who speaks with his eyes, as the ‘umble Cratchit. Ken Rolf, too, every inch the jovial Victorian gentleman, shone a new light on the Fezziwig’s family dance sequence. And Jeff Green was compelling enough as Marley’s ghost to put shivers down my spine.

The children were at the heart of the production, Matthew Turner as Young Scrooge, Alex Dale-Doczy as Oscar, Lily Beer as Cratchit’s daughter and, especially, small, frail-looking Steven Turner, struggling manfully with his crutch as Tiny Tim.

The play was shot through with all the good nature of a well-organised village production, in the Ambridge tradition (but a bit more convincing). The costumes were superb, the ensemble work by the large, unwieldy cast was totally in character and, joy of joys, an actual real, live, violinist, Anton Archer, to squeeze the last dregs of melodrama out of the production.

MURDER PLAY

MURDER PLAY

Little Baddow Drama at the Memorial Hall

26.04.13

Murder Mystery Evenings are everywhere these days: on trains, in hotels, at stately homes …

Not surprisingly, Little Baddow's first foray into this popular genre is a cut above the usual cardboard Christie/Cluedo offering. Brian J Burton's play, while not Priestley, or even Francis Durbridge, does have some clever twists in its fifty minutes, and it is performed, without a hint of tongue-in-cheek irony, by an accomplished cast, directed by Lindsay Lloyd.

Caroline Ogden is superb as the cool, calculating wife, who, she confesses up-front, has done away with her husband, on the sofa, with a hat-pin. Supper guests John Peregrine and Vicky Tropman, not without murder motives themselves, become cleverly manipulated accessories after the fact. Ken Rolf is the Cornish bookseller; his sole contribution before the interval an "old-fashioned look" directed at his scheming spouse …

Discussion ensues over the canapés, the audience tables encouraged to provide their own resolution to the plot – Friday night's suggestions included Max Clifford, Fifty Shades and sapphism, though not all at once.

The swift dénouement – everything wrapped up in five minutes – is skilfully handled; while every member of the capacity audience had differing views on the motives and morals of the characters, we all agreed that this format [murder mystery in the round with food and drink] was a welcome addition to Little Baddow's repertoire.

THE LITTLE BADDOW PASSION

THE LITTLE BADDOW PASSION

open air production on Good Friday

29.03.13

Billed as A Walk of Witness with dramatic interludes, Kenton Church's take on the Good Friday story was inspired by Stephen Cotterell's "The Nail".

Played out in real [Jerusalem] time, it shows some of the key players in the Gospel story looking back over the events of the day, and attempting to justify their actions.

Along the Ridge, down North Hill, from the General's Arms to the Rodney we encountered snow flurries, Roman Soldiers [the Crucifixion], Pilate and his wife [the Trial], Caiphas and Annas [the Veil of the Temple], Peter and Mary [the Denial]. Perhaps the most effective scene saw the lone figure of Judas Iscariot, forcefully telling us his side of the story, before, disillusioned and defeated, he took a length of rope and trudged off along the narrow path to Scrub Wood.

This compelling piece of promenade theatre ended with the acting company – the military, the politicians, the priests and the people, mingling with the sixty-strong crowd in the Rodney Inn, singing together "Were You There When They Crucified Our Lord?".

LORD ARTHUR SAVILE'S CRIME

LORD ARTHUR SAVILE'S CRIME

Little Baddow Drama at the Memorial Hall

21.11.12

Another classic drama from Little Baddow, with the admirable production values we have come to expect at the Memorial Hall.

The Grosvenor Square drawing-room is skilfully suggested in a set which is solid, convincing and beautifully dressed. The characters are generally well costumed, too, with some stunning outfits for the Aunts.

This adaptation of a short story is not The Importance, of course, though we are reminded of it in the opening moments, when Arthur is overheard at the piano by his manservant. These two roles were excellently played by Martin Lucas, nice but dim, with expressive features and body language, and James Oakley, erudite and unflappable, with scene-stealing sideburns.

Sarah Trippett-Jones gave us a lively, flirty Sybil, and there was strong character work in support from repertory actors Paul Randall – a saturnine palmist – and Ken Rolf – the doddery Dean of Paddington. Grandes dames aplenty, including an imperious Vicky Tropman and Gill Peregrine as an annoying Aunt. Not forgetting Jake Hawkes as the incompetent anarchist.

John Peregrine's enjoyable production showed commendable attention to detail – the scene changes covered by Ibert, and the clever curtain call.

ROOM SERVICE

ROOM SERVICE

Little Baddow Drama Group at the Memorial Hall

27.04.12

Jim Hutchon checked into the North Hill Hotel ...

Something of a departure for Little Baddow, this assembly of prose, poetry and music on the theme of hotels from all corners of the earth was, above all civilised and often thought provoking. Some of the pieces were from familiar pens – Dickens, Belloc, Trollope, Bennett (Arnold) and Bennett (Alan). But others were either totally obscure or not noted for this sort of treatise.

The five readers were Michael Gray and Rita Ronn (who co-produced the evening) plus Caroline Ogden, Ken Rolf and Allison Tibbatts. Interspersed with the readings were songs from the gifted duet of Kate Knight and Roy Sach, who provided appropriate melodious commentary on the proceedings.

Some beautifully-crafted, odd and some frankly very strange pieces reflected the wide-ranging search which had gone into the unearthing material for this. I could have done with, perhaps more variation, many of the pieces were erudite and often funny but generally delivered in standard book-reading English. There were some variations: Ken Rolf made a passable stab at Bryson American, and Michael Gray did a fair Bennett (Alan).

They managed to cram no less than 40 pieces into two stage hours, tho’ I felt the material couldn’t really sustain that length of production. Perhaps fewer, with longer pauses and a longer finger buffet interval would have helped. But this was, nonetheless a very enjoyable and civilised evening.

THE HOLLY AND THE IVY

THE HOLLY AND THE IVY

Little Baddow Drama

15.11.11

This is the kind of traditional, "well-made" play Little Baddow does best.

An old-fashioned three-acter, with a beautiful solid set, about an old-fashioned family Christmas, set in a world of bedjackets and eau-de-cologne, where the Waits still sing carols and the trains run on Christmas Day.

Wynyard Browne's creaky dialogue and improbable characters don't necessarily play well today, but there are some deep Chekhovian insights into death and despair, the meaning of Christmas and the role of the family.

Ken Rolf movingly suggested the doubts of the ageing clergyman, setting off with his shoes in his pockets and his sermon in his hand. We were all relieved when the happy ending saw him reconciled with his difficult daughter [an elegant, emotional Sarah Trippett-Jones]. Jo Windley-Poole nicely caught the dilemma of the stay-at-home daughter, desperately clutching at her chance of escape with her "Scotch" beau [James Oakley].

The best of the variable accents on offer was the Dublin brogue of Annette Michaels, giving a spirited performance as the formidable Aunt Bridget.

Sensible, sententious Richard Wyndham was played by John Peregrine; his steady director's hand was at the helm of this polished revival in this, the playwright's centenary year.

KATHERINE HOWARD
Little Baddow Drama Club
November 20 2010

Jim Hutchon was at the opening night for the Chelmsford Weekly News:

Ken Rolf’s moving production of Katherine Howard’s eventful two-year royal career succeeding Anne of Cleves was shot through with real scholarship and drama, the well-dressed cast working seamlessly to recreate the dangerous path of Royal entanglements.

Katherine Howard was played with a nice mix of modesty and honesty by Sara Thompson, the devious Cranmer by Paul Randall as a satisfyingly slimy schemer, and Norfolk by John Peregrine, able to turn his coat with the speed of light when necks were on the line. Dan Ford was convincing as Katherine’s previous lover Culpeper to whom she lost her heart then her head.

Memorable moments included the anatomy lesson from a tactful Lady Jane Rochford (played with style and drama by Vicki Tropman) to the naïve dumpling Anne of Cleves (Catherine Bailey), where she likens little boys’ tassels to a seed drill… “When they can become very fierce!”

In a series of beautifully-modulated soliloquies, Michael Gray gradually unpeeled the human being in love behind the picture we have of the spiteful, bad-tempered, tyrant Henry VIII.

The set was dominated by an enormous curtained box taking up most of the stage, which doubled as a chapel, wedding four-poster and execution chamber, and was simply in the way for the rest of the play. The action, which should have taken place in spacious and sumptuous state rooms, seemed confined to surreptitious meetings in dark corridors in the spaces round the box.

Mary Redman was at the last night:

William Nicholson's play about the April-September marriage of both convenience and love between the oh-so-honest Katherine Howard and King Henry VIII came to me as a big surprise in many senses.
First I was surprised by the black and bleak humour of the piece as well as the tragedy of this hastily arranged marriage propelled forward by Katherine's weaselly uncle Thomas and his cohorts of plotters for control of the King/state religion. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose...
Then there was the honesty. From Sara Thompson's utterly delightful Kate whose truth both captivated the King and condemned her to the lonely executioner's block. Honesty too, from the playwright and Michael Gray as a Henry revealing the extent of his mortality and humanity combined with the burdens of state. The wedding night scene between the grumpy Henry and Catherine Bailey's dimly stolid Anne of Cleves with her cackling sense of humour, was a prizewinner for the tongue-in-cheek comedy of its direction and acting. I shan't easily forget the image of the two of them sitting bolt upright and poker faced in bed as the officials fussed around them.
Honesty also tore Katherine and Dan Ford's Thomas Culpeper apart and the scene when the two physically tortured characters appeared was moving and a sharp reminder that some things never change in many hundreds of years. We are constantly shown things in the news nowadays that speak of unchanging brutality and violence against the person, by using "instruments" as William, Cranmer's secretary, describes them and Henry bitterly spits out.
John Peregrine's Duke of Norfolk, Paul Randall's oily Cranmer and Trevor Edwards' cowardly Wriothesley made a fine trio of baddies. Life on stage for the other cast members would have been very much easier if Cranmer hadn't needed so many prompts. It really does put a strain on the others when they cannot rely on someone else's being strong on the words.
Vicky Tropman was smoothly splendid as the self-serving Lady Jane Rochford, easily used by Cranmer and co for their own ends, and shown up by her cry of desperation at her sentence of death.
Brian Greatrex's team including the highly-experienced Pam Brider came up with a splendid piece of ultra-heavyweight, oat-coloured cloth (normally used as an altar cloth I would have thought) to surround the bed of state. The executioner's block was a masterpiece of lighting and impact. Tony Brett's costumes, especially for Henry, could not be faulted for their magnificent impression, but in the small hall and with bright lighting some gaudy thin modern fabrics were all too obvious. We all know the economic reasons for this.
As to the whole of Ken's production it was the second highly impressive show I've seen this week. To combine seeing 84 Charing Cross Road [Hutton Players at Brentwood Theatre] and Katherine Howard was too much to expect. As critics we often sit through non-professional productions where good enough is good enough. To be privileged to sit through a production which has unfathomable depths of integrity, thought, careful attention to details including background music, and above all tender loving care is something rare.

Thank you Ken, cast and crew.

production photographs by Trevor Edwards and Matthew Adams

GETTING ON
Little Baddow Drama
21 April 2010


Mary Redman was at the Memorial Hall



It was good to have the opportunity to experience Alan Bennett's punningly titled play for the first time in a production which had a lot of good things and some that were a bit off - like the Curate's Egg.
So whether you were getting on in the ageing sense or getting on in the compatibility stakes Bennett's acute eyes and witty ears observing the foibles and intricacies of human behaviour meant there was something for everyone. "Shit has no pedigree!"
The sturdy set built by Brian Greatrex, Graham Keats and Barry Weight was a delight from the point of view of reality in an understatedly effective North London middle class kitchen of the 1970s. Barbara Newton had dressed it impeccably with bric a brac and piles of washing galore. Proof of her dedication to her task.
It was, however a set of two halves. I felt that there was no need for the two distracting door frames as they simply obscured the action but, most of all, was the regret that each of the wings sides of the kitchen was obscured wherever you sat. So one side of the audience missed the wonderfully dressed bookshelf, fireplace etc., while the other missed the equally haphazard kitchen. I realise you had to accommodate a rather large cast for such a small stage but it was a pity to waste such good workmanship (and womanship).
Lighting and Technical by Jonathan Patient and Matt Adams was good although (and this is almost certainly a directorial thingy) I felt that lighting fades at ends of scenes were often too slow and long. I did like the use of very carefully and specifically chosen incidental music by Eric Coates (I am told) with a little modern addition, which set moods and underlined action or emotions.
Stage Management was kept very busy conjuring up food and drinks and much, much more, in the safe hands of Barry Weight.
It was a great delight to see and hear Rita Ronn back on stage as mother-in-law and "Mommy Dearest" to Polly. With her wealth of acting and life experience and that beautiful voice she relished the mixed emotions and poignancy of her role as a shameless older woman. The kind that wears purple with pride and joy.
Equally welcome was Gill Peregrine's immaculate and marvellously observed cameo as the outraged, indignant Mrs Brodribb.
John Peregrine did the world weary MP George in that seen-it-all before, agitated, disillusioned, disaffected manner he does to a T. As his daffy wife Polly, and closely resembling a younger, darker-haired doppelganger  of Felicity Kendal, Vicky Tropman was the perfect foil for George's worries and harassment.
All hail to Trevor Edwards for his performance as MP Brian for resisting the temptation to stereotype his gay character. This was the sort of man who is perfectly secure in his identity. This portrayal also made a good contrast to the occasional camp of Andrew Wallis's bisexual handyman. Andrew created a portrait of this perplexed young man in just a couple of weeks, so all hail to him for this achievement.
Edward Sainsbury gave us a faithful characterisation of disaffected youth, helped no doubt by his own age, but I would have appreciated more vocal projection from him.
Director Michael Gray and his Assistant Director Ken Rolf created a faithful portrait of the 1970s life but I do have to tackle the elephant in the room - prompts. It would be unfair not to mention how often John Richardson was necessary, because insecurity on lines infects the rest of the cast and infests your own characterisation, whilst interrupting the audience's necessary suspension of disbelief.
It is a tribute to the strength of Bennett's play, the director's support and the combined power of the cast that we still enjoyed getting on with the play.

Jim Hutchon saw the play later in its run for the Chelmsford Weekly News:



Director Michael Gray’s epic production of this rambling, shambling play relied largely on the more than ample supply of Alan Bennett’s words to get the story across. It involves a self-opinionated Labour MP who listens to no-one and, like a ‘literary shredder’, reduces everything in his path to a torrent of words to the frustration of his family. In the course of the play, his wife and his best friend both have an affair with an itinerant visitor, his mother-in-law survives a medical crisis, and his son tells him like it is.
John Peregrine was the MP with verbal diarrhoea, though he buckled somewhat under the sheer weight of the words, and struggled to create the subtleties of his character. His wife – played by Vicki Tropman - managed to carve out for herself a genuine 3-dimensional character and her outburst following her affair was a dramatic high spot. The best friend – a homosexual MP – played by Trevor Edwards was very convincing, and created a rounded character comfortable within himself.
Andrew Wallis played the bi-sexual lover. Initially self-effacing, he went on to provide a genuine tear-jerker of an explanation for his plight. Nice to see Rita Ronn back, as the mother-in-law. Her interventions were invariably full of drama, and she never missed a laughter-line. The son was Edward Sainsbury – excellent as a fairly laid-back teenager content to frustrate his father. He too, had an impressive moment of confrontation.
The set was a lovely mix of the bizarre and shabby chic - the results of “the liberal art of collecting others' unwanted scrap.”
This was an absorbing and very long play which needed a great deal of concentration, but was well worth the effort.

An Inspector Calls

Little Baddow Drama

19th November 2009

Jim Hutchon was at the Memorial Hall ...

Director Ken Rolf staged this as an unashamedly, dead-pan melodrama, complete with dramatic lighting and sombre, film-like music. Set in an over-stuffed Edwardian dining room peopled by over-stuffed Edwardians, the play concerns a police inspector who shatters the smug complacency of a family celebration by revealing the complicity of the family members in the downfall and suicide of a young mill-girl.

Michael Gray played the bluff, northern patriarch with characteristic pompous energy and barely suppressed outrage, conscious of the danger of a public scandal to his knighthood aspirations. Vicky Tropman was very convincing as his snooty wife, too thick to understand her complicity in the matter. From a slowish start, the two youngsters in the family, Sarah Trippett-Jones and Iain Miller went on to steal the show. She completed a beautifully judged conversion from air-head to a prescient young lady, while he, as the rake about town who finally did for the mill-girl, actually managed to look sick at the realisation.

John Peregrine’s enigmatic inspector was full of insights and accusations in a bravura performance that held the audience’s attention throughout, and Kenton Church played the daughter’s fiancé with great panache as he forensically revealed the possibility of a hoax in the inspector’s visit.

Though Priestley’s language and mannerisms are 100 years old, and the play is crammed with clichés, the director imparted an interesting freshness to the production which made for a thoroughly absorbing evening’s theatre.