Frome Drama Club is taking on something rather different for their autumn production in mid-November (19th – 21st November) at the Merlin – a good old-fashioned romantic comedy!
Director Philip de Glanville said, “I can’t remember when we last did something fun, and charming, and witty, and with a proper happy ending. ‘Ring Around The Moon’ by Jean Anouilh (translated by Christopher Fry) is all that and more.
“I’ve met a number of people recently who still remember with great affection seeing the original 1953 production, with Paul Schofield, Clare Bloom and Margaret Rutherford, and the relatively recent revival in the West End was described by critics as ‘a delicious theatrical trifle’ and ‘a lovely guilty pleasure’. We are all enjoying rehearsals enormously.
“The play is set in the large vaulted glass orangery of a magnificent chateau in northern France, just a few years after the war, and takes place on the evening of a very grand ball.
“Our heroine, Isabelle, is an impoverished ballet dancer from Paris who has been invited down for the weekend by Hugo, with the intention of distracting his twin brother Frederic and saving him from what everyone thinks will be a disastrous marriage to a shockingly spoilt heiress.
“The brothers are identical and, since this is romantic comedy, of course Isabelle falls immediately and hopelessly for the wrong brother. Naomi Parnell, back from reading English and Drama at university, is playing Isabelle and James Moore, head of drama at Writhlington School, is having great fun playing the twin brothers.
“Among the FDC stalwarts playing the various grotesque characters at the ball are Gillie Richardson, as the wheelchair-bound despotic Mme Desmortes, Laurie Parnell as the melancholic millionaire Mr Messerschmann, Richard Thomas as his highly anxious private secretary Patrice Bombelles, Robert O’Farrell as the neurotic Romainville, David Gatliffe as the ‘crumbling’ butler and Sue Ross as Isabelle’s excruciatingly embarrassing mother.
“Very welcome newcomers to the Club this time are Roxy Thomas as Diana Messerschmann, the reluctant object of Frederic’s affections, Annie Ward as Capulet, Mme’s faded companion, and Michaela Bosquet as Lady Dorothy India, Messerschmann’s mistress, who is secretly having an affair with Patrice.
“Comedic complications abound, but it all ends happily for most of the characters, as of course it should in a proper romantic comedy!”
‘Ring Around the Moon’ is at the Merlin Theatre on Thursday 19th – Saturday 21st November Tickets £10 / £8 now on sale. Box office: 01373 465949 or www.merlintheatre.co.uk