The Merry Wives of Windsor by The Castle Players @ Bowes Museum

Bowes Museum, the magnificent French styled palace just outside Barnard Castle, plays host this year to the UK’s first exhibition of fashion designer and pioneer Yves St Laurent.  Guaranteed to draw crowds from all over the UK and beyond, the YSL show – Style is Eternal -  has already piqued the interest of  VIPs and fashionistas alike but this isn’t the only production at Bowes with such a far reaching appeal destined to play out to capacity crowds.  The Castle Players, the premier al-fresco production company bring their summer show to the museum grounds and guarantee to give as unique and ground-breaking an experience as the Algerian/French fashion designer himself.

The Merry Wives of Windsor, Shakespeare’s bawdy comedy written in the early 16 hundreds and set in & around the castle of the same name (rather than pertaining to the family name) is this year’s offering by the much awarded and truly dedicated cast and crew. Bringing back to centre stage, Shakespeare resurrects Falstaff, the larger than life, womanising philanderer with a waistline only shadowed by his ego, to play linchpin to this typical comedy tale of cross and double cross.  In his oft deluded state, the portly knight believes that his appeal to the fairer sex is impossible to deny and he merely needs to cast an eye their way to have them swooning and fawning.  In need of money to maintain his extravagant lifestyle, Falstaff hatches a plan to woo and seduce the wives of 2 wealthy men, blackmail them for their silence and steal all their wealth.  Of course, the audience know all too well that Falstaff is regularly played at his own game with his ego being laid out before him, destined to trip and tumble back to his rightful place at the foot of the inn keeper.

This new approach, directed by Mary Stastny, sets the tale in the Edwardian era, with the introduction of streetwalkers, inn girls, suffragettes and even a motorised tram car.  It is testament to the writing of The Bard that his style, prose and in particular storylines are so readily transported to a more modern setting with little lost in terms of both character or plot.  The introduction of some ‘traditional’ bar songs bring the tale into the musical hall and helps serve to engage the audience further.

What is always a favourite aspect of watching the Castle Players is the ease at which the cast deliver their parts; not only are they consummate professionals in their approach to learning and understanding the script, but they are so relaxed with each other that should there be a slight slip or deviation from the plan then they embrace it (and each other) – there are no airs and graces here, the 4^th wall is more a loosely constructed picket fence through which the audience is encouraged to peek.

Stand out performances must start with the Portly Knight himself – Falstaff, played with total abandon by Gordon Duffy-McGhie.  Gordon was brilliant; lecherous, conniving, self-centred and totally deluded in his own self importance.  The two ‘wives’ – Mistress Ford (Marzia Aloisio) and Mistress Page (Jill Cole) were equally beautiful and alluring and yet held the newly found strength and confidence befitting the ‘modern’ woman of the early 20^th Century.   Sean Mitchell, as Abraham Slender, showed again his fabulous character acting – he seems able to immerse himself in any role and I’m sure there were many in the audience who, like me, would expect to see a lot more of Sean in the coming years.  Special mention to Steven Bainbridge – not only has Steven arranged and directed all the music, but had to sit at the Garter Inn piano throughout the whole performance – not easy to stay there in the rain and cold and still get his fingers to keep moving.

This is the first summer production to be directed by Mary Stastny  As many of her predecessors have learned through experience, sitting in March & April planning an outdoor summer production is oft done with the rose tinted expectations of long balmy evenings, temperatures still holding in the low 20’s and the ground giving back its stored heat of the day. The ambition to create the best possible production, to include a few more scenes, an extra song or two or to be less critical in the abridging of a few monologues (and let’s face it, Shakespeare loved his pages and pages of monologues) can take over from the reality that many of the audience will have been sat from before 7 and won’t get to leave until gone 11pm.  The British summer can never be relied upon as seen by last night’s performance which was played out in rain, a cool breeze and, by the time of the 45 minute interval, temperatures in single figures. Sadly this is not unique for our summers so maybe there needed to be a more pragmatic understanding that whilst the intent to showcase all the director’s skills was admirable, less is more – cold and tired hands don’t tend to applaud for too long.

The Castle Players production of The Merry Wives of Windsor is on at Bowes Museum until Saturday – parking for the next few nights is not available at the museum itself but will be open at the adjacent school.  Bring a picnic for the interval, a cushion for your bum and a blanket for your knees and settle down to watch another wonderful performance by one of the UKs best Shakespeare companies.

Sherlock Holmes' Hound of the Baskervilles by Castle Players @ Scarth Hall, Staindrop

A good old fashioned thriller for a cold winter’s night.

Way back before the advent of TV, wannabee celeb shows and million channel digital networks, local amateur theatre was the mainstay of Saturday evening entertainment for the majority of people. Performers, cast and crew were members of ‘Am Dram’ who, for weeks before, had practised and rehearsed their lines whilst running the local post office, teaching at the village school or delivering milk & bread. Performances were usually given in the village hall, with its own soundtrack of creaking beams and whistling windows added to heavy tobacco smoke to give an extra frisson to the atmosphere (especially when the show was a good old fashioned ghost story or thriller).  Whilst audiences didn’t expect RSC or Doyle Carte standard, they felt a ‘oneship’ with those on stage and as such forgave the wobbly scenes and oft fluffed lines.  I thought that such shows were now consigned to the social history books but on Saturday I took a step back in time and watched a retelling of the famous Sherlock Holmes story, The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Barnard Castle’s renowned The Castle Players.

This production, which is currently touring around Teesdale during January, was delivered on the very small stage at Scarth Hall, Staindrop, yet, with minimal use of props, sound and lighting, was a captivating example of good story telling.  Directed by Sarah Fells and Chris Best, and with a surprisingly large cast of over 14 Players (quite how they all managed to get on stage at the same time is still a bit of a mystery), the story opened with a riveting monologue by Andy Moorhouse who, in recounting the initial Baskerville legend, set the tone for the night before bringing the audience into Baker Street and of course Sherlock Holmes (played with a mix of excitable genius and dismissive disdain by Steven Bainbridge).  Interestingly, for a Holmes story, it is Dr Watson who takes the majority of the lead in this production and Andrew Stainthorpe was cool, calm and very accomplished in the role – with more than a passing resemblance to Higgins from TV’s Magnum, he excellently maintains the detective element in the story in the absence of the Deerstalkered one.

There were a few occasions where the directors seemed to play to the lowest possible audience intelligence – literally signposting the scenes (including ‘FOG’) was more off putting than helpful and appeared a easy out instead of devoting a little more effort into
the set dressing, after all, there are only so many places one can put their only hatstand.  

Likewise, the use of newly bought bright blue clip boards (not the norm for 19^th century London) left a few puzzled faces in the audience. The script, edited and abridged by Jill Cole was on the whole, very good, though some of the carefully built intensity and atmosphere was lost when the cast were allowed to drop into almost pantomime comedy.  That said, as entertainment goes, the whole evening was most certainly a great night out and far better than anything being offered on the hundreds of TV channels.

Sherlock Holmes is undergoing a bit of a renaissance, especially with the excellent BBC series making a return this month complete with clever graphics and elaborate plots, but this version was very much more in tune with the original tales and delivered with an honesty and genuine enjoyment – a great step back in time both on & off the stage.