Harlequinade

By Terence Rattigan and directed by Ken Spencer 

Performed at the Totton Drama Festival,

then at the Maskers Emsworth Road Studio on 18th March, 2008

The Director wrote:

Terence Rattigan’s Harlequinade was first presented in 1948 as half of an evening of one-act plays and starred two of the matinée idols of the day - Eric Portman and Mary Ellis.

The first of the two plays, The Browning Version which saw Eric Portman as a frustrated and disillusioned school master and Mary Ellis as his faithless and callous wife, provided a strong contrast to what was to follow..... A hilarious skit on the acting profession, with Portman and Ellis featured as a theatrical husband and wife in what we fear is not a first rate production of Romeo and Juliet.

It seemed to me to be an ideal choice for a Festival of one act plays providing, as it does, “dramatic” opportunities of all shapes and sizes for both newcomers to the craft of the theatre and those with more experience (and who really ought to know better!!).

………

The Craft of Comedy is a serious matter - when the laughter in rehearsal stops you know you’re heading in the right direction - when the audience starts to laugh you know that the last five weeks have been worth all your efforts.

Cast

For the Maskers