SADDLEWORTH Players are already in festive mood with rehearsals underway for their Christmas comedic extravaganza.
This spoof on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is long on title but big on laughs.
And if you have ever seen previous productions by the calamity crew that is the Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society, then you will know their assault on a literary classic is not to be missed.
The Farndale Ladies’ lack of talent never stops them from aiming high.
The ambitious cast of four divas and Gordon- the hapless stage manager-enthusiastically portray a dizzy array of characters. Yet they have excelled themselves in deviating from the original to bring us yet more.
They stick close enough to Dickens’ tale to bring us the ghostly hauntings of Jacob Marley and the spirits of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas yet to come.
But the redoubtable ladies also engineer some novel audience participation while bravely contending with an intrusive PA system and, with more ambition than ability, wrap their vocal cords and feet around two original, show stopping songs.
The props may malfunction, the sound system fail, the cast fall to bickering.
But the show must go on and the ladies surmount their many drawbacks with seasonal good cheer, a rousing sing-along and a spectacularly funny show.
Director Verity Mann said: “The play was chosen as an antidote to the lack-lustre Christmas we all experienced last year under lockdown.
“Now theatres are fully back up and running, we wanted to celebrate the start of the Christmas season with festive classic-with-a-twist and spread glad tidings of comfort and joy to our faithful audiences who are returning to support community theatre.”
• Farndale’s version of Christmas Carol is on from Saturday, November 20 to 27.
Book tickets online via www.millgateartscentre.co.uk or by telephone booking: 014547 874644 (booking fee applies).
