A BUNCH OF AMATEURS
Break a leg! So she did!
And we’re back! You couldn’t make it up..
In the very last run through of A Bunch of Amateurs (Malvern Theatre Players and Melting Pot) way way back in April, everything was going swimmingly. Costumes – tick, sound – tick, lighting – tick, props – tick, broken ankle – tick… our very own Susan Doran, in the penultimate scene in the play, playing Dorothy Nettles leading light of the Stratford Players, took a bit of a wrong turn and missed a step. It wasn’t quite ‘blues and twos’ to Worcester A&E, and our Sue was being very stoical, but it was clear something wasn’t quite right. And when the hospital staff found out she had broken her ankle during rehearsals well, the jokes just didn’t stop!
So now, thoroughly mended and possibly even better than ever, Dorothy is ready once more to lead the Stratford Players to perform the definitive ‘Lear’, with a bit of help from Hollywood Superstar, Jefferson Steel. Unfortunately Jefferson thought his agent had sent him somewhere a little more prestigious and he’s unhappy – to say the least! – to be working with a Bunch of Amateurs! Come a see the hilarious results when sleepy Suffolk meets uptown LA.
A Bunch of Amateurs runs from 30Sept -5Oct . Tickets available from the Malvern Theatres website and box office on 01684 892277
Malvern Theatre Players
(Resident Company of the Coach House Theatre)
42nd Season
in association with Melting Pot Theatre Present
A BUNCH OF AMATEURS
by Ian Hislop and Nick Newman
Presented by arrangement with Samuel French Ltd
Keen to boost his flagging career, fading Hollywood action hero Jefferson Steele arrives in England to play King Lear in Stratford – only to find that this is not the birthplace of the Bard, but a sleepy Suffolk village. And instead of Kenneth Branagh and Dame Judi Dench, the cast are a bunch of amateurs trying to save their theatre from developers. The enthusiastic am-dram thespians test Jefferson’s monstrous ego, vanity and insecurity to the limit as acting worlds collide and his career implodes, but he finally discovers some truths about himself – along with his inner Lear.
Originally conceived as a film in 2008 starring Burt Reynolds, Derek Jacobi and Samantha Bond, it was premiered as a Play at the Watermill Theatre in 2014.
“terrific comedy packed with killer comic dialogue ….. plenty of twists and turns” – Whatsonstage
“Deliciously stuffed with Shakespeare …… a laugh a minute” – Mail on Sunday
“a tremendous laugh … terrific tenderness … captures the love and spirit of the best amateur performances” – Stratford Herald
