Rumpelstiltskin

Was held in Filkins Village Hall on Friday 27th and Saturday 28th November

 

Filkins Theatre Club supports one of our younger members
Added: 1st August, 2009

We are very pleased to report that Oliver Ashforth-Smith has been accepted to attend the Summer Course at the National Youth Theatre in August 2009.  Competition for these courses is very tough and this year the NYT had the highest number of applications on record.

Oliver was a member of Filkins Junior Theatre for many years and is now taking on adult roles with great confidence and enthusiasm. 

Filkins Theatre is keen to encourage young talent.  We are delighted to be able to offer Oliver a Bursary to help with the fees for this course, and would be happy to consider future applications for other young actors.

The Filkins Revue 2009

The Filkins Theatre’s Revue on Friday 15th May tickled many a funny bone and tantalised the audience with everything from stunning singing to downright shock and awe! Café-style seating in the village hall was filled to overflowing for this extravaganza directed by Liz Ferris and Daniel Porter.

Daniel was joined by Alan Heath to spark off the evening with a good ‘Argument’ in a Monty Python sketch loaded with enough verbal abuse, name-calling and head-bashing to satisfy the most contradictory of spirits. Three poems read by Sandy Wall and Richard Martin maintained the meticulously ridiculous with tales of a cross-dressing builder and a wretched man who had the audacity to order bread with fish balls. “Our very own sparrow of Filkins”, Barbara Bristow, then brought some class and passion to the proceedings in her impersonation of Edith Piaf singing ‘La Vie en Rose’ and ‘Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien’, complete with an immaculate French accent.

Representing all those 94-year-olds in the audience (!), a sword-wielding Christopher Harrison amazed us and cautioned us to beware of Lewis Carroll’s ‘Jabberwocky’ lurking by the Tumtum tree. At the other end of the age spectrum, Bryony Gibbs (a Filkins X-Factor 2007 star) was all sparkles and curls during her beautiful singing of ‘Love Story’ and ‘Save Me from Myself’. Christina Aguilera had better watch her back! The Revue’s first half finished with a hilarious performance of ‘The Man Without’, featuring Filkins troopers Sue Ashforth-Smith (in the title role), Peter Browne (the courageous king), Lynne Savege (the virtuous queen), Julia Neame (the pure princess) and Pat Scott (the puny porter). In their kingdom, confusion reigned supreme as to whether the man without the gate wanted the princess’s hand or “all of her” or “Oliver” the gardener.
Thankfully, the mystery man without was granted nothing at all!

Soprano Annabel Molyneaux, our resident professional, mesmerised the audience with her spectacular voice and saucy polka-dot dress as she sang the Irish folk song ‘Down by the Sally Gardens’ and Noel Coward’s ‘A Room with a View’. Next, the world’s most succinctly funny version of ‘Cinderella’ was performed by Pam Edwards, Sarah Galloway, Lucille Jones, Elaine Smith and Helen Squire, complete with lots of scenes in the kitchen and perhaps the shortest scene in the history of theatre. All good fun! Youth then took over as Hannah Greenwood showed why she was the Filkins X-Factor 2008 winner, making the hall “Light up, light up” with her lovely voice and the poignant emotion of ‘Run’ by Leona Lewis, plus taking us back to the rocking ‘Summer of
‘69’.

Sue Ashforth-Smith instructed the audience in the amusing agony of ‘How to Give a Cat a Pill’, from the art of retrieving pills catapulted into the goldfish bowl to blowing them down straws to somehow medicate the “mutant cat from hell”. It was then back to Daniel Porter to play the ‘Big Shot’ from the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. But the biggest shock was yet to come, as Sue, Barbara and Lynne were joined by Michele Heath (a.k.a. the ‘Filkins Fillies’) to flash their fish-net stockings and wiggle their hot pants to the beat of ‘He Had It Coming’ from the show ‘Chicago’. Daniel stayed on stage to help Nathan McCree play along with this fantastic foursome of femmes
fatales!

Through it all, pianist Sue Cave managed to hold it all together, aided by a superb crew that included Paul Thompson, Andy Hoad, Pat Clark, Jerome Farmer and Sally Peach. In the evening’s finale, a remarkably unreserved English audience was in the mood, on their feet, singing and jiving to the ‘Dancing Queen’ -- having the time of their life!

Below are some pictures taken on the evening. Click here to go to the video clips.

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