Theatre company professionals are getting friendly with local community venue

It will come as welcome news to performance-lovers in Somerset, to discover that the market town of Frome is now home to a professional, touring theatre company. 

The Merlin, already known for it close connections with the luminary Mark Bruce Dance Company, is delighted to announce it has teamed up with award-winning theatre company, New Old Friends, as its new associate organisation, commencing this season.

To mark the start of this new partnership, New Old Friends theatre company will perform the opening two nights of its latest touring show, Crimes On The Coast, especially for Frome audiences at The Merlin before heading off for a further 30+ performances in venues as far away as Fyfe.  

Director, Claudia Pepler, explains “We believe in collaboration. Working with our local community, including audiences, participants, schools and voluntary groups but also, vitally, professional arts companies too, means we can achieve much more than we could without them.  New Old Friends are in great demand and have been awarded and recognised nationally, including at the Edinburgh festival, so we feel  very lucky to have them based right here in town.  We are very excited at the blossoming of this relationship.”

Headed up by Feargus Woods Dunlop, New Old Friends was founded in 2008, rapidly joined at the helm by Heather Westwell .  During work experience for her university course, Heather found herself on a theatre project which Feargus was running and they both discovered an immediate shared interest in comedy theatre and, as Feargus tells us, “We became great friends instantly and it wasn’t until almost a year later that we admitted what  all our friends and family could see already – we were in love. We got married in 2012. Our relationship is rooted in theatre and comedy and we’ve been making each other laugh since the day we met.  Inevitably the personal and the professional  can occasionally overlap but that’s not  necessarily a bad thing:  the creation of Crimes On The Coast, the play we are launching at the Merlin, was directly inspired by a last-minute break in Dorset which we took to celebrate our anniversary!”

As regular audience members will know, The Merlin offers a varied programme each season covering many different genres of performance and retaining its place as a well-loved community venue right in the heart of the town’s senior school campus.  Often hosting shows that involve local young people,  this continued connection with professional performers is part of the theatre’s wider remit to ensure that those interested in participating in and studying the arts get a rounded understanding of all that is involved in forging a creative career.  

The Merlin director goes on to explain, “One of the things we love about New Old Friends, and a great reason for having them as part of the programme,  is the company’s commitment to ensuring the place of women in comedy and on stage.  They have 50/50 gender casting and I can tell you that the women are every bit as funny as the men. That’s a model we feel we can really support.”

‘Crimes On The Coast’ takes place on a secluded island hotel which quickly becomes a crime scene as a scandal-inducing femme-fatale is dealt a terrible blow and all the guests become suspects.  With only four actors playing multiple outrageous roles, this is a comedy thriller inspired by Agatha Christie, Noel Coward and PG Wodehouse and a guaranteed fun night for both regular audience members and for those who are new to the charms of live theatre. Everyone is welcome and, leaving the last word to the company’s founder, if you are not a regular at the theatre then be assured this show might well change that. As Feargus says “We don’t have any grand aims or sweeping artistic goals; we just want to make people laugh”.

Crimes On The Coast will be performed by New Old Friends, at Merlin Theatre, Frome, at  7.30pm on Friday 13th and Saturday 14th September.  Tickets are available online at merlintheatre.co.uk or via box office in person or phone 01373 465949