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On The Razzle Lichfield Garrick Rep and Lichfield Players *** TOM Stoppard's farce is not the easiest
play for a largely amateur cast to perform in this pro am collaboration
between the Lichfield Garrick Rep and the Lichfield Players but they
make a decent fist of it. It has the usual ingredients of farce with
mistaken identities, ridiculous situations arrived at by the most
innocent of means and, in this case, the added difficulty of convoluted
language and phrases which hardly flow like natural speech. Farce is also about pace and timing and at times
opening night was lagging a little behind although with first night in
the can the cast can now settle down to find their own rhythm. The tale is simple in that Zangler, who runs a
posh grocers in an Austrian Village is both protecting his niece Maria
(pro Lindsay Carr) from the attentions of Sonders (pro Tom McCarron) a
penniless young man while he is also pursuing widow Madame Knorr (Jan
Goodwin)who runs an up-market frock shop in Vienna. Throw in a new servant Melchior (Michael Kelly)
who knows best and shop assistants Weinberl and Christopher who are
supposed to be minding the shop but have headed of to Vienna on the
razzle “to acquire a past before it is too late” and all the ingredients
are there ready to be mixed. MONEY Chris Stanley, apart from a few first night
stumbles around his words, was excellent as Zangler, the pompous, money
mad grocer who manages to mix metaphors and indeed words at will,
constantly asking those around him what he actually means or is trying
to say. Also standing out are two of the pros, Darren
Beaumont as the newly made partner in the Grocer's shop, Weinberl and
the newly promoted senior sales assistant Christopher played by
Joe Morrow. Promoting Weinberl to partner, Zangler
calculates, is cheaper than paying him to run the shop while he spends
time with Madame Knorr The pair provide the slapstick and frantic
element with excellent timing and a great sense of fun. The play is based on an Austrian play from the
1842 and its first appearance in 1981 had Felicity Kendall as
Christopher – continuing a Vienesse tradition of girls playing pretty
boys. The play also spawned The Matchmaker, a
Thornton Wilder play from the 1930s and, less obvious, the musical
Hello Dolly. The character Dolly Gallagher
Levi was missing from Stoppard's versio The production, directed by pro Alice Bartlett
and designed by pro John Brooking, uses a revolving stage with four
basic sets which provides some amusing – and some slightly drawn out -
interludes for scene changes there are also some elements which leave
you a touch baffled such as a panto horse and a pair of gorillas
Stoppard relies heavily on word play and some of
the puns and linguistic party tricks – some of the puns are painful by
the way – seemed to get lost in delivery but perhaps confidence after a
successful opening might improve that. Meanwhile hats off to Lichfield Players stalwart
Barry Aitcheson who took on the role of the Foreignerat 24 hours notice
when the incumbent was forced to pull out. Waving the will of a Sonders' deceased aunt which, by happy coincidence, also contained his words, Aitcheson carried off the role with aplomb with the audience completely in the dark as to the real drama on stage. The will, by the way made Sonders very
rich and thus eligible to marry Marie. Credit as well to Jane Gardner as Mrs Fischer,
another widow who finds herself supposedly married to Winberl who claims
she is his wife when he is in widow Knorr's frock shop where he has been
hiding from Zangler, with Christopher, both disguised as a mannequins. She was making her debut with the Players and a
return to the stage after 15 year of teaching and bringing up her
daughter. Some people thought she was one for the four pros in the show.
Praise for her perfomance indeed. With a bit more pace, a touch more insanity and a
more aware delivery of the wealth of funny lines the razzle could
dazzle. The cast will be mistaking identities and
confusing intentions until 16-04-11 Roger Clarke
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