Saturday night I dragged some family members to Maskerade, a play based on a Terry Pratchett book. Kicking and screaming they were, well screaming with laughter. It’s a tremendously funny play, bringing to life some of the scenes that are harder for the reader to imagine, bringing to life some of the smaller characters that aren’t given much book time.
The play was put on by Gemco Players and is on till Election night so you still have a few more nights to get there, it’s well worth the money. My OH is not a Discworld fan and spent the evening laughing and smiling.
They put a lot of attention to detail so you really have to watch carefully. If you look at the photos you’ll begin to understand. They provided some free snacks during the interval including Nanny Ogg’s Strawberry Wobbler. Diet? What Diet?
As is usual in plays put on by small theatre companies some of the actors do double or triple duty and there is one person you must watch out for, the boy with dreadlocks does several characters and has put lots of thought into each of them, some he does with a severe state of class. Having said that many actors put in a lot of little bits of acting so while you’re watching one person you have to watch everyone else as well.
The ice creams were normal ice creams but each one had a ring of cardboard to turn it into a witch’s hat, as you can see from my ticket I still have my cardboard.
Two people from our Discworld Committee were in key roles. Carmela played Nanny Ogg with verve while Damien was a very convincing Mr Bucket and Michael kept the lighting under control. I would have loved to have stayed behind afterwards to have a few words with them and tell them how much I enjoyed their performance but as I had to get up at stupid o’clock the next morning we ran out the door very quickly.
One last thing I have to say. I have so much respect for these people. They have day jobs but they still go on to spend hours and hours each week putting in so much time learning lines, rehearsing and then putting on plays. Kudos!
Edit: In case you want to buy the book or the play here are the links. Booktopia has several copies of the book but I’ve chosen the one with the nicest cover and here is the play.
Thank you so much for your kind review. As one of the company with several minor parts it’s worth all the effort (fun) when we can be proud of the final result. And I’d like to remind you that live theatre includes the audience, when you react it becomes part of the experience and brings it to life. You were great at all performances with laughter and applause throughout, thank you. I hope you’ll keep Gemco in mind for our future shows (including more Pratchett) and join us again. We’re still finalizing next year but in June we’ll be presenting Canterbury Tales and that will be funny relief to lift winter spirits. You’re always welcome at Gemco. Merry Christmas everyone.
Don Black (Mr Pounder, Sgt. Detritus, etc.)
You’re most welcome, but I wouldn’t have been able to write it if it wasn’t good so the kudos goes to the people in Gemco. The audience only responded to what we saw and my OH who rarely smiles when dragged somewhere was laughing so it’s all good.
And yes, the bit parts were fabulous. I so enjoyed Mr Pounder and Sargent Detritus. Looking forward to more at Gemco.
Thank you, enjoy the festive season and Happy New Year. Don Black.