A very Happy New Year's Eve to everyone and scraping in under the wire that is the year end, I have been very lax in bringing news of this year's annual village play. I'll be in trouble if I don't mention the Milton Abbot Players sell-out production of It Runs in the Family by Ray Cooney because I think the Players may have been waiting very patiently since November to see the pictures on here.
Bookhound was enlisted by Jim the Postie (peeking through at the back...yes that's Jim who delivers all the books) to help with the props and scenery this year and here's the backstage crew with props various...
This seemed to be the cue for bits of furniture to go missing from home in order to populate the Doctor's Common Room of St Andrew's Hospital, London. And it was a funny thing when the curtains opened on the stage in the village hall, (with the customary hand appearing around to pull them back when they got stuck, which they do every year) funny in that it was all a bit familiar, a sort of deja vue stage set.
The synopsis of It Runs in the Family is glorious...
Dr David Mortimore is preparing to address a conference of neuro-surgeons with a speech certain to guarantee him a knighthood. In rushes a visitor. A nurse he had a fling with 18 years ago. Mortimore learns that as a result of their tryst she bore him a son. A son who is at this moment rampaging round the hospital searching for his wayward father! Attempting to cover up such a catastrophe on this important day sets the fibs fizzing. “If you’re going to tell a lie, tell a whopper,” yells Dr Mortimore as events begin to spin deliriously out of control. He enlists the help of hospital staff. In the ensuing chaos his best friend is passed off as the boy’s father! Fierce matron falls off the window ledge with a hypodermic needle in her rump! And several doctors end up in nurses’ uniform! There are more twists and turns in this outrageously funny farce than the Monaco Grand Prix. An evening of delicious and uproarious fun for all.
The programme that accompanies the play is always hilarious with potted biographies of the actors...
'Having studied at RADA (Royal Academy of Doing Acting) Tim left the bright lights of London in search of a more rewarding acting career in Milton Abbot Village Hall.
Some comments in praise of Tim:
"nobody does it quite like Tim ...thank heavens" - Kenneth Brannagh
"His Annie Get Your Gun was not so much a 'tour de force' but 'forced to tour'..." - Maggie Smith
I recognize that desk...
I'm sure I've seen that drinks trolley somewhere before..
Dr Mortimore's son discovers his father and falls on his knees...just as the Consultant walks in. Yes it was as dodgy as it looked and by this point we are crying with laughter...
...now beside ourselves as Matron, out on the windowsill takes a direct hit in the left upper outer quadrant
With perfect timing Doctor Bonney pulls the curtains on a lanced Matron as the Consultant walks in to ask yet again why Doctor Mortimore is not giving his lecture...
...Dr Mortimore is busy digging himself out of a hole and the front row is about to get a soda-syphon soaking... as is the Police Sergeant sent to investigate the disturbance ...as is our desk..
....Drs Mortimore and Bonney reappear as duplicate Matrons, now we are almost in need of oxygen...
...and now in need of resuscitation...
..hats off to Matron for holding this pose in the wheelchair..
Cue thunderous applause and cheering.
And though we curl up laughing every year I don't think we have ever laughed quite this much. I'm not sure the pictures do it justice and if they are blurred my apologies, I really was in hysterics. but congratulations to the Players for a brilliant production.
The Players have been in existence and producing a play each November since 1928 on a stage supplied to the Village Hall by the Duke of Bedford. November chosen because the cast would often be made up of members of the local farming community who had time to rehearse during September and October after the harvest.
AmDram alive and well in the Tamar Valley for another year. Does this sort of thing happen where you are??
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