CAST

Mrs Reece	-	Barbara Morley-Jones
Thelma	-	Joanna Hicks
Mercedes	-	Caroline Hargaden
Gordon	-	Michael Ball
Felicity	-	Cherry Bullock

DIRECTED by Ken Farley

Ever since Shakespeare satirised the theatrical ambitions of the rustics in "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" the calamities so often attendant on the efforts of amateur thespians, have been a rich source of humour for latter-day comic dramatists. McGillivray and Zerlin's play falls into this category and provides an hilarious send-up of a fictitious amateur dramatic society's attempts to cope with a dramatisation of Charles Dickens's novel, "A Christmas Carol".
Such comic plays are, one might suggest easier to write than to produce, or to take part in. Top marks then to ROADS for using this material to provide such an entertaining evening of burlesque and pantomime. Excellent sets which capture perfectly the crude scene-setting of the Farndale Townswomen' s Guild, accurate timing by all the cast to reproduce their hamming of the dialogue of "A Christmas Carol", together with a steady flow of unscripted interjections, and back-ground noises, ensure that the audience willingly become involved in the make-believe and are, from the start, fully receptive to its comic situations.
The musical numbers, "Because it's Christmas" and "Scrooge" poke fun at modern Christmas jingles and, with audience participation in the former, reinforce the element of pantomime in the entertainment. And, for the traditionalists, there is a goodly offering of well-known Christmas music before the raising of the curtain and again during the interval.
It would be unfair to try to single out any one of the cast for special praise. All successfully act their allotted parts with zest as well as skill. Barbara Morley-Jones is a convincing Mrs Reece, the bossy narrator whose exchanges with Gordon, the stage manager make a considerable contribution to the humour. Mike Ball’s part as Gordon, injects a flavour of spicy humour into the dialogue as well as delightfully deadpan pantomime performances of the roles of Mrs Cratchit and of Marley's Ghost. Joanna Hicks, as Thelma, is at once a typical prima donna of amateur dramatics and an extremely accomplished twentieth-century style scrooge. Caroline Hargaden's Mercedes (Bob Cratchit) is outstanding, achieving humour almost by paradox, emphasising the woodenness of the character yet sparkling in its presentation. And Cherry Bullock as Felicity captures the very essence of Scrooge’s nephew, Fred, and contributes yet another of the pantomime effects which help to make this such a welcome Christmas romp.
Ken Farley is to be complimented on his direction, in particular for the skilful introduction of the kind of contemporary background complications the ardent amateur has to contend with these days: police and commercial vehicle communications intruding on the efforts of the hapless narrator, as well as feed-back and other strange "noises off".

IMAGINE a group of well-meaning ladies, long on enthusiasm, but a little short on talent and organisation, putting on a Christmas play
Frank Spencer winging in as an angel, in beret and raincoat, would not have seemed out of place in this very different version of "A Christmas Carol" written by David McGillivray and Walter Zerlin Jnr
Ken Farley directed the festive play, in which the Ross Operatic and Amateur Dramatic Society gently sent up amateur dramatics!
The five members of the cast were all very good. But those backstage, under stage manager, Ann Catcheside, had as big if not a bigger part to play, with the vast catalogue of 'noises off' eliciting much of the laughter from the audience.
Barbara Morley Jones as Mrs Reece, the eager, chatty leader of the 'Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society', gave her usual immaculate performance and was very funny especially when taking the role of Tiny Tim.
I always enjoy watching Joanna Hicks on stage and she has a fantastic array of comic expressions. She took the part of Thelma, The Actress. There was quite a pantomime feel when she appeared as Scrooge in the 'amateur' production, having trouble with and confusing Gordon, ineptly taking the parts of the lugubriously funny ghosts. A good performance from Mike Ball.
A journalist I know, once encountered someone with a broken leg acting in Shakespeare. His story of that play reminded me of the amusingly accident-prone Mercedes, played by Caroline Hargaden.
Last but by no means least, Cherry Bullock gave the polished performance ROADS regulars have come to expect. I particularly admired her anxious dance sequence, attempting to hide a long change of costume by Mrs S Reece.
The director gave special mention of the props team, Pat Hill, Jane Russell and Marian Sparrow, in the programme, indeed some of the props were comedy acts on their own!
The audience obviously knew most of the cast and entered into the pantomime spirit. As the audience left the Phoenix Theatre on Thursday night, one lady commented: "That was a real tonic."