Wednesday, July 9, 2025
Teesdale Mercury
  • News
  • Features
  • Test Drive
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Art & Leisure
  • Buy your paper
  • Buy our photos
  • Digital edition
  • Contact
No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Features
  • Test Drive
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Art & Leisure
  • Buy your paper
  • Buy our photos
  • Digital edition
  • Contact
No Result
View All Result
Teesdale Mercury
No Result
View All Result
ADVERTISEMENT

Review: Farce is just the tonic for cold winter blues

by Nicky Carter
December 6, 2021
in Art & Leisure
Review: Farce is just the tonic for cold winter blues

BRAVO: The Gainford Drama Club cast

Lend Me A Tenor
Gainford Drama Club

LAUGHTER is the best medicine and something members of the Gainford Drama Club cast were able to dole out in spades when they performed their latest production, the classic comedy caper, Lend Me A Tenor, at the village’s Academy Theatre.
The 1986 Ken Ludwig play is an old-fashioned farce, filled with layer upon layer of misunderstandings, mistaken identities, sexual innuendo and unexpected plot twists.
The action takes place in two rooms of a Cleveland hotel suite booked for superstar Italian opera singer Tito Merelli, played by Ian Hanmer, who is booked to play one night only at the opera company.
His late arrival and subsequent reluctance to rehearse is cause for consternation for opera company manager, Saunders, played by Alistair Burns, who superbly channelled Basil Fawlty, and whose dislike for The Bellhop, Bethany Lewis-Burrows, was reminiscent to scenes from Fawlty Towers.
Hapless helper Max, played by Glyn Casswell, has ambitions to sing, and a soft spot for Saunders’ starstruck daughter Maggie, played by Emma Simpson, who wants an autograph (and perhaps something more from Tito).
Tito’s gesticulating jealous wife Maria, played by Kate Nichols, wants her husband’s eye to stop wandering and his appetite to be sated only by her.
Layers of sub-plot start to unravel with hilarious consequences when wine, tablets and a sleeping superstar lead to misunderstandings, impersonations and lots of door slamming, especially in act two with the arrival of opera company members Julia Leverett, play by Jan Richardson-Wilde, and Diana Nedda, played by Maria Lowcock – who was superbly suggestive with just the right amount of lasciviousness.
Performances were delightfully over-the-top and laughter rippled through the theatre almost as soon as the curtain was drawn back.
It is the second time the drama club have staged the show, the first time being back in the late 1990s.
The decision by director Lawrence Chandler to stage it again as their first post-pandemic production, to “give people a laugh” was just what the doctor ordered.
It was just the tonic on a dark, chilly November evening and further proof of why Gainford Drama Club continues to go from strength to strength after 73 years. Bravo.

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Previous Post

Fans head to halls as word spreads of Highlights delights

Next Post

Review of Beauty and the Beast – Georgian Theatre Royal, Richmond

ADVERTISEMENT
No Result
View All Result

Stay connected

Facebook Twitter
ADVERTISEMENT

Most popular

Green Lane early years team among best in country

Green Lane early years team among best in country

July 7, 2025
Use it or lose it: Barnard Castle newsagents at risk

Use it or lose it: Barnard Castle newsagents at risk

July 9, 2025
Get ready for Staindrop Carnival this month

Get ready for Staindrop Carnival this month

July 3, 2025
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

15C Harmire Enterprise Park
Barnard Castle
Co Durham
DL12 8BN

Email: [email protected]

Registered in England as Barrnon Media Limited. No: 12475190

VAT registration number: 343486488

Explore

  • Art & Leisure
  • Business
  • Country Life
  • Features
  • News
  • Sport
  • Test Drive
  • Digital edition

Useful links

  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Buy your paper
  • Photosales
  • Digital edition
  • About us

Follow us on

© Barrnon Media Limited 2025

Terms & Conditions / Privacy Policy / Cookie Policy

This website and its associated newspaper are members of the Independent Press Standards Organisation
No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Features
  • Test Drive
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Art & Leisure
  • Buy your paper
  • Buy our photos
  • Digital edition
  • Contact

© 2024