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THE HAUNTED THROUGH LOUNGE
AND RECESSED DINING NOOK AT
FARNDALE CASTLE
Ferndown Drama Group
The Barrington Theatre
Ferndown

April 2002

THE Farndale Avenue comedies all follow the theme of a Townswomen’s Guild putting on a performance of a play, musical or whatever during one of their meetings. But not everyone knows that, so it might have helped Ferndown’s audience to understand quite what was going on if they had been greeted, shown to their seats and sold raffle tickets by the “TWG” themselves, rather than seeing them for the first time on the stage.
As it was, the audience reaction on seeing the curtains part to reveal a mistake-ridden “rehearsal” on stage was one of stunned silence, and it seemed to take some time before people realised it was all a spoof.
Once the “play proper” – a sort of cross between The Rocky Horror Show and Blithe Spirit – got underway there were plenty of laughs, thanks to the antics of the “ladies” – Eileen Gee, Chrissie Davies, Joanna Etheridge, Margaret Hollington & Miranda Ennis – and their “producer”, David Nielsen.
A faster pace would have made things even funnier, but however hard everyone worked it seemed the problem was definitely that lack of early audience involvement which created an insurmountable “them and us” situation.

Linda Kirkman
Courtesy of the Bournemouth Daily Echo

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