Celebrations are the order of the day at recent rehearsals from the Too Friendly Theatre Company. The cast have just been informed that they have received multiple nominations in this years National Operatic and Dramatic Association annual awards. The awards celebrate the best of the North West’s theatre and they have been nominated for their play ‘It’s Now Or Never’, performed in the Little Theatre in Southport last Summer. They have been nominated as ‘Best Supporting Actor for Mark Haygarth, ‘Best Actor’ for Cliff Gillies, ‘Best Director’ for Cliff Gillies, ‘Best Staging Of A Play’ and for the ‘Best Play’. Cliff has also been nominated for ‘Best Mortal In A Pantomime’ for his role of the Dame in All Soul’s production of Peter Pan!
This amazing news comes as the company puts the final touches to another show at the same venue. ‘Time Of My Life’ opens at the the Little Theatre on May 27th and tickets have just gone on sale. The play, written by Alan Acykbourn is considered one of his greatest plays and should prove a real treat for local drama fans. The story follows Laura Stratton’s fifty-fourth birthday. She is out for the evening to celebrate at her favourite local restaurant. The other guests include her businessman husband, Gerry, her two sons Glyn and Adam, Glyn’s wife Stephanie and Adam’s new girlfriend, Maureen. Three couples celebrating a happy family outing. Yet is it all as harmonious as it appears? What secrets lie buried in the past? What hidden tensions lurk beneath the present surface? What awaits them all in the future? What do the waiters make of it all?
Alan Ayckbourn’s dark comedy explores the family’s lives, past, present and future in a three way journey through time. It has been described as ‘completely timeless, a masterpiece of theatre’ and ‘dark, funny, a soul searching
The production opens on May 27th and runs till the 29th at the Little Theatre in Southport.
You can get information on the theatre’s website www.toofriendlytheatre.com. Tickets are priced at £7.50.
BOOK TICKETS NOW! YOU NEVER KNOW YOU MIGHT BE LOOKING AT NEXT YEAR’S ‘BEST PLAY’!
To book tickets in advance call 01704 541306
in a three way journey through time. It has been described as ‘completely timeless, a masterpiece of theatre’ and ‘dark, funny, a soul searching
The production opens on May 27th and runs till the 29th at the Little Theatre in Southport.
You can get information on the theatre’s website www.toofriendlytheatre.com. Tickets are priced at £7.50.
BOOK TICKETS NOW! YOU NEVER KNOW YOU MIGHT BE LOOKING AT NEXT YEAR’S ‘BEST PLAY’!
To book tickets in advance call 01704 541306
Tag Archives: Shows
New play… and more award nominations.
Les Miserables, NODA review
A review of Les Miserables has appeared in the NODA magazine, This is a cut down version of it. The full version can be seen on their website here.
This was a brave choice. It is a long play and could have done with starting earlier. Staging the play just using lights and blacks worked well as we moved through the many scenes.
The less the scenery, the more prominent the costumes became and on the whole it was well staged. …there was a large cast of 14 and, in no particular order, Mark Haygarth (Marius/Paul) played both parts well with a nice distinction between them. Sister Suplice was played well by Lisa Morgan .Tom Hancox’s Fauchelevent and John Hardiker’s Quink were both nice cameos. The Main roles of Javert and Valjean were in the safe hands of John Windsor and Cliff Gillies who both gave strong performances.
The masters of the house were just as nasty as in the musical with Peter Roney and Sue Thomas filling the roles – black teeth and all. Joanne Wasilew grew into her role and Helen Haygarth, once again, gave an impressive performance as Fantine. I would also mention a lovely cameo from Andi Culkin who was Eponine. These were well supported by Simon McCarthy, Rob Darby and Dott Scott.
This was a long, but extremely good piece of drama with some superb individual moments.
Murdered To Death, Reviewed By Champion Newspaper
The Champion Newspaper has run a review of Murdered To Death.
You can read the full review here (www.champnews.com)
However below I will copy excepts from it, mainly the bits than correspond to me (after all this is my site) and maybe make some comments myself.
“The play is just one of a popular trilogy featuring the imbecilic Inspector Pratt and director Cliff Gillies took centre stage as the manic policeman, a comical interpretation which owed much to Tony Hancock. He did it so well that it was a pity some of the dialogue he was forced to speak was cringeworthy in the extreme.”
“The actors all acquitted themselves well and the audience laughed constantly throughout the evening, even breaking into applause at some of the lines, making the night a great success.”
So far so good really… being compared to Tony Hancock… wow!… And the audience laughed constantly too. Great!
However the final paragraphs made me think…
“For myself, I have trouble with farces. There are no characters, just caricatures. Plots are meaningless so who cares what happens anyway? The audience around me may be convulsed with mirth, and the cast onstage look like they are having great fun, but I sit there thinking how ridiculous the whole thing is.
I would much rather see this talented company perform a serious play rather than infantile dross like this…”
Infantile dross? Really? Farces may be ridiculous, it’s in their very nature… and whilst some may well be dross (as I producer I have read many that are) I simply do not believe that can be said about Peter Gordon’s script. The script (as the review states) has had over 500 productions… were it not a well written, well paced, farcical comedy I cannot imagine it would get more than one!
Anyway to dismiss something as infantile dross in this way is ridiculous. You cannot dismiss something for being silly when that is it’s expressed purpose! Would you dismiss speed racing for being too fast? The same phrase could, by extension, be applied to the works of Monty Python or the ‘Carry On’ series of films… both are chock full of silliness and cheesy puns, however that doesn’t mean they are any less relevant or any less enjoyable… whether I’m a fan of the genre or not I can see that.
However this is an excellent point to debate… let me know your thoughts:
Did you see the production? What did you think of it?
Do you like this type of comedy? Is the reviewer right?
When you go to the theatre do you want to be challenged, have your thoughts provoked, be entertained or just made to laugh?
Sometimes your in the mood for ‘War and Peace’ sometimes you just wanna sit in front of the television and watch Big Brother… Should theatre and plays always have to “about” something… or can they simply be there to entertain?
Interesting isn’t it.
For my point of view it should be a bit of both. When we set up TFTC, Helen and I decided that we would look to do both ‘deep’ character driven or message plays like Les Mis or Countdown or Wuthering Heights mixed in with more ‘fun’ plays like Stags And Hens or Girl’s Night Out or Comfort & Joy.
Thank You… Thank You… Thank You.
I’ve recieved loads of emails in praise of the last show, here are just a sample.
… a great performance… On the strength of our recommendation my parents have decided to book for tomorrow.
Really enjoyed Murdered to Death. Thank you.
What a wonderful night. We laughed to point of crying. You must do it elsewhere again Liverpool or Ormskirk or Southport again… Fantastic night thanks to you all.
I was at your excellent perfomance Saturday night and, WOW, what can I say in a few words, when I want to use a lot i.e. ,WONDERFUL, MARVELLOUS, AMAZING,F.A.B.
Thanks to everyone who emailed and wrote. It was lovely (and a bit blush inducing) to read and I’m really glad you liked it.
Final Night Of ‘Murdered To Death’
The scenery has been flattened, the costumes put away and the audience has left the building. The curtain has come down on Too Friendly’s latest production, that of Peter Gordon’s Murdered To Death. For me the final performance was fabulous, really great, I thoroughly enjoyed it! Once again I delighted in being on stage and once again I corpsed in the final scene of Act One.. However it was the audience that started me off this time!
Overall I would have to say that this one of the Too Friendly’s best productions for sometime. Quite how I define ‘best’ I’m not sure… individually we have acted better before, we have had better costumes, I’ve directed better, we’ve had better scripts, better scenery… but something came together on this one which was intangible. I think the audience helped – especially on the Friday and Saturday – as they made an incredible atmosphere. But this production really did feel special to be part of.
Peter Gordon’s script is excellent, very funny, and if you are a theatre company looking for a crowd pleasing, side splitting play, then you could do no harm in checking it out.
Thanks once again to everyone who came to see the show, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
Last Night’s Show
Last nights show was amazing!!! No really it absolutely rocked! Of course… that’s just my opinion but I really, REALLY enjoyed myself last night. Sometimes on stage you get these moments of sheer zen… moments when your just in the zone and so enjoying yourself you feel like you can do anything… it was like that last night. The chemistry between the cast was wonderful and everything just gelled, much more than opening night, much more relaxed, much tighter, much more fun. The audience was great and even applauded the set as soon as the curtain opened. In fact they were a brilliant audience. Laughing at everything, getting all the jokes… on stage you feed off the audience and when you get a audience like last nights it lifts the show even more.
I have to say I was a bit unprofessional as I lost it on stage… I corpsed. It was the last scene of Act One and it’s very, very funny. John (playing Tompkins) was brilliant, milking the scene for all its worth… but something I did, some face I pulled, made him laugh… he lost it and giggling turned away from me…. That just made it worse as all I could see was his shoulders shaking… I too turned away… only to see Helen (Miss Maple) cracked up with tears in her eyes too… that did it… I cracked up and the audience knew… they cheered along, in on the joke and I REALLY had to struggle to get back on track. I know it’s not the most professional thing in the world but in this particular play we got away with it… in fact I think it made the scene.
I loved it last night… It was one of my favorite shows for a long time.
If your in the area come and see the show tonight… I don’t think you will be disappointed.
Anyway attached is a photo of my dressing room (very untidy it is too). I’m a bit obsessed with dressing rooms. I don’t know why… However I’m going to post pictures of all my dressing rooms from now on.
Anyway… time to get ready for tonight’s show… the final performance in this run.
Dress Rehersal For Murder
Just got in from tonight’s dress rehearsal for ‘Murdered To Death’. Things seemed to go okay… in fact it seemed to go very well indeed. Having said that… that’s always a bit of a worry… if the dress rehearsal goes too well you can’t help thinking that it might not be a good omen.
Do dress rehearsals usually go well from your companies? We seem to have had a mixed bag over the years; from the great ones (Kindly Keep It Covered) to the most disastrous and just sheer terrible (Having A Ball). I wonder what are your experiences? Do they go smoothly for you – a sort of just pulling the pieces together or are they a sheer panic trying to desperately make it work / remember your lines / re-blocking all your movements.
Anyway…
The stage is set, the cast know their lines (sort of), the backstage crew are ready and the tickets are selling (sort of). So there is nothing left to do except get a good night’s sleep (no chance) and be fresh, relaxed and focused for tomorrow (well maybe the last one anyway).
See you at the show and in the bar afterwards! 
Set Building
We have been building the set for our next production which opens tomorow. I must admit I really like this bit of putting on a show as it’s exciting to see it come together and it’s really fun in terms of the comaradie it creates. The set looks good… a dingy old manor house just as we envisaged. We will spend tonight adding some final touches and then it’s dress rehersal time! No going back now…. mind you, as anyone who has ever been directed by me will tell you, I will probably change chunks of movement and actions tonight… but hey it keeps us on our toes!
