Lend me a tenor

‘Lend me a tenor’ a farce by Ken Ludwig, is showing at the Rockingham ‘Castle’ Theatre, 8 Attwood Way, Rockingham at 7.30 each night until 20^th September.

            In an upmarket hotel suite in Cleveland, it is 1934, and Saunders (Michael Stocks) a theatrical manager, is waiting for his latest sign-on, an operatic singer called Tito Merelli (David Heckingbottom) to arrive.  Saunders’ daughter, Maggie (Nicole Beaman), is fed up with her pathetic, lifeless boyfriend, Max (Paris Romanis) and recalls how Tito kissed the palms of her hands on a previous meeting. The gay bellhop (Rob Walker) also lusts after Tito. When ‘Il Stupendo’ does arrive with his wife Maria (Nicole Brown), an old battleaxe of a woman, she is justifiably, insanely jealous of Tito’s infidelities.
            Tito has a nervous stomach and is given tablets by his wife, however they are the wrong ones and he takes an overdose and dies. What will Saunders do to pacify the thousand patrons waiting to hear the singer? How will Diana (Larraine Craig), the lead soprano take the news? How will Saunders break the news to Julia (Jennifer Hocking) the Chairman of the Opera Guild?

I am ashamed to say that this was my first visit to this theatre. Like many others, I possibly thought that it would be a Hicksville organisation. How wrong can one be? This theatre is probably the most professionally run community theatre that I have seen. The stage is well equipped and the seating comfortable, and all seats have a clear line of view.

This theatre has had numerous farces and comedy shows over their 35 years, so their skills, under the directorship of Barry Page and David Heckingbottom are well honed. The comedy flowed smoothly, the pace was excellent and the cast outstanding. There were a couple of prompts required, but considering that a building shaking storm was going through, the cast turned up the volume and continued well. The Italian and American accents were consistent and quite accurate.

With a farce they say that the more doors there are, the better the farce. This play had 6 doors, each one being used to the full. The set (the Groves family) and costumes (Lorraine Page and Jeannie Watkins) were genuine Art Deco, with the finish of a professional show.
The script was designed for action, more than double entendres and spoken humour, but the belly laughs kept coming. At the end of the show was a Benny Hill type chase (slightly too long, but part of the original script) as a reprise of the play was re-enacted. Well worth the 40-minute trip to see this very funny performance. Special congratulations to Paris Romanis and David Heckingbottom.