Bedroom Farce was a fabulous show with many of the tropes reserved for classical farces.
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Theatre Group’s latest show was a classical farce; a lot of double entendres, over the top characters and total fun. It was a wonderful night out with exceptional performances that even some blocking issues that couldn’t mar.
The staging of the play itself was ingenious; with the three bedrooms shown in a triangular fashion to show the lives of the four couples involved. The top bed belonged to Ernest (Josh Vaatstra) and Delia (Ellie-Rose Fowler), an elderly couple who were absolutely fantastic in their characterisations as well as showing excellent chemistry throughout. The second bed featured Jan (Flora Whitmarsh) and Nick (Darius Timmerman), the latter never leaving his bed with bad back. Flora managed to play the exasperated wife expertly with good comedic timing and flair which really made the relationship come alive. The third and final bed was owned by Kate (Naida Allen) and Malcom (Jordan Gardner) – the arguably most whacky and sassy of the pairs – who interacted mostly with Susannah (Francesca Scannella) and Trevor (Lewis Keen). In the first act, Keen felt noticeably upstaged during the first act, but he quickly managed to pick the pace up to match Scannella in the second half.
The staging was overall effective at dealing in the hectic movements of the characters, but there were moments in which the blocking was too close to the front of the stage. An example of this was when Francesca and Lewis were involved in an animated fight in the first act, but, being sat at the back, I was unable to see most of it. Furthermore, when Darius was crawling on the floor towards a book his character flung away, it was blocked too forward and so was lost on those at the back. Understandably, the Annex is a difficult space in which to block but I think this should have been taken into consideration.
The comedic aspect was entirely wonderful; the cast and the production team did an incredible job bringing Bedroom Farce to life! Overall, an excellent night out!
Bedroom Farce was in the Annex Theatre from the 13th of December to the 16th.
