The Venetian Twins

Peasant that I am, when I was last in Stratford Upon Avon, it was for a Bentley Drivers Club meet. I’m sad to say I did not once go near a theatre, although that weekend I did dance with a lady who’s day job was in Transylvania, performing as a tour guide at Dracula’s Castle - her bite was far more interesting than her bark - but I digress. Vanessa Jensen saw “The Venetian Twins” performed at Stratford Upon Avon in 1993. I’m glad she did, for she has brought a wonderful piece of comedy theatre to the stage.

My friend and I attended the Saturday (2nd August) performance at The Old Mill, not quite sure what genre we were going to see. I liked the no-curtain open set, it was visually very appealing and instantly told the story and set the scene, (Hywell Williams to the fore and good to see Tony Ridout involved), but on with the show, within a couple of minutes, we were grinning and chuckling, not long after that, we were laughing like drains. We were still laughing on the way home.

Unfortunately the best lines belong to the men in the show (we’ll get to them in a minute), however the ladies were fabulous with special mention for Stephanie Beeby, for her wonderful expressions and Brenda Evans has a presence that hopefully will continue to be nurtured – one hastens to add, I’m not for one minute leaving out Jessica, Sarah, Lisa and Jodie, all of whom demonstrated considerable (and obvious) experience and craft. But tonight, by the grace of the playwright, Carlo Goldoni, was for the boys and bloody hell, did they go for it.

There were some great minor characterisations, by old hands such as Peter Bloor and Warren McGrath and also good onya Ian Black for stepping into the limelight. That motorbike riding Welshman Hywel, proved adroit in playing a scheming, love-struck Venetian and Gary Davies was very good as the turncoat friend, with only Phil Mackenzie’s role as the Doctor, seeming a little weak, when swamped by the over-the-top lead role characters, which leads me to Jeff Watkins and Theo Messenger.

Gentlemen, bloody magnificent, wonderful, just glorious. Jeff plays the dandy fop, perfectly. He is quite mesmerizingly funny, with his physical characterisation the equal of his vocal efforts. It is truly a magnificently funny performance. Theo Messenger’s twin-roles performance is hats-off material. His ability to switch basically instantly from one character to another is astounding, his comic ability is superb and his improvised banter with an audience member, bordered on genius – compliments also to the unnamed gentleman in the second row, who tossed back lines like a pro.

It’s a big cast, the sword fights were excellent, the cast was obviously enjoying themselves and the comedy timing was exquisite. This was amateur theatre at its best, I would recommend this production to anybody. Vanessa Jensen, her cast and The Old Mill have created something special. I note that it’s almost sold out, however there were still some tickets on Wednesday 6th and Thursday 7th, a few seats on Friday 8th and four single seats on the final night. Congratulations to everyone, I wish I had half the talent of you people.

All Good Things Greg Ross

Disclaimer: Peter Bloor and Hywel Williams are friends, as are several of the production team.