Those with an HR background (and like me, unfamiliar with this title) will be disappointed to learn that it’s nothing to do with employment best practice! 🙄 According to Tolethorpe’s website, it’s a tale of…
“plot twists, cross-dressing, forged letters, mistaken identities, love triangles, hilarious disguises, a merry band of folk musicians and a host of colourful, comic characters”.
Nope! Definitely NOT HR then! 😉
Being at Tolethorpe Hall, for us, it also meant a picnic and meeting up with friends. This year, fellow picnickers Jo, Janet, Carol, and Helen joined us (Chris couldn’t make it). The only difference this time was that unlike every other year we’ve been here, today, the performance came first followed by our picnic – something that Tolethorpe had introduced to better manage the crowds for both the matinée and the evening performance.
We all went into this one a bit cold. None of us were familiar with the title at all or had heard of the writer: George Farquhar. As we made our way to the seats, we could hear a Band playing (that’s a first for Tolethorpe Hall). It turned out to be a five-piece group dressed in period clothing and playing instruments of the time – and they certainly did a great job warming up the crowd. An excellent start! That same group then became part of the troupe and provided the music throughout.
Unfortunately, for me, it all went downhill from there. Strange really, in that the acting was superb, the costumes, colourful, the lighting was spot on and the scenery well constructed and imaginative. In fact, it was SSC at its best… except I just didn’t ‘get it’. Clearly the humour was mostly in the dialogue and occasionally, visually and that’s exactly my sort of humour, but it was just too confusing for this poor soul! 😯. I WAS obviously missing something because a lot of the audience were giggling along as the production progressed – and it was a full house too! 🤔
It probably didn’t help that dialogue volume was somewhat variable depending on the actor, requiring us, as the listeners, to work extra hard to make sense of what was going on. It was such a shame as I really wanted to like this – surely anything that contains cross-dressing, forged letters, mistaken identities, love triangles and hilarious disguises is guaranteed to raise a titter… or ten! 🤔
Would I see it again just to be sure? Nope! Would I recommend it? Definitely not! Would I see a different production, sometime in the future? Probably not!
For me (and I suspect a few others too) the most disappointing production I’ve ever seen at Tolethorpe Hall 😮. Well, at least we had the picnic to look forward to!! 😉
We discussed what we’d just seen…and it looked like I wasn’t alone! I did some research on George Farquhar in between courses. Irish by birth, it seemed he only had a short life (he died before his 30th birthday) and in that time was responsible for three pieces of work.
Additional entertainment – provided completely free of charge – was supplied by Jo and me. If you think deckchairs can be unco-operative, try these particular tables that fold down the size of a matchbox, but require infinite patience to assemble them! 😯 – and there were TWO of them!!! 🤔
I got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology and communication (in all its forms), together with a fondness for the art of writing seemed to be the perfect combination to contribute a few words to the online community. But I’m no Samuel Pepys! If you’re looking for deep and meaningful comments on a variety of subjects, then you’ve arrived at the wrong site! I only pen for pleasure! On average, my posts appear about twice per month, covering family & friends, cinema visits, eating out, holiday experiences and techy stuff. Oh, and as this is my hobby, there are no sponsored links nor adverts here – it’s all done with love!
I hope you find it enjoyable, interesting and occasionally, even helpful!
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