‘The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society’s Production of Macbeth’ - a comedy by William Shakespeare, David McGillivray and Walter Zerlin Jnr.
4 November 2016On Saturday we were at the George Street Community Centre in Fenny Stratford, Milton Keynes to see the local amateur theatre group The Branchette Players. They were performing ‘The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society’s Production of Macbeth’ - a comedy by William Shakespeare, David McGillivray and Walter Zerlin Jnr. This is one in a series of 10 play-within-plays by McGillivray and Zerlin featuring the Farndale Avenue Guild. This one might have been subtitled ‘The Scottish Play That Goes Wrong’. Playing an incompetent amateur theatre group allows any actual slips to go unnoticed but for the comedy to work the amateur actors do need to be able to deliver most of the original Shakespearean lines straight. The Branchette Players were clearly very capable with some great Shakespearean acting on show, amongst the farce, particularly from Shona Gilchrist as Macbeth. Sue Noon was wonderful as Mrs Reece who ends up holding the show together. And Wayne Oakes was a surprisingly sympathetic Lady Macbeth. But the funniest moments were the blank-faced confusion of Lynn Homer’s voiceless Banquo.
posted by Robin Simpson @ 4:35 pm
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