3:50pm Wednesday 17th March 2010
By Tom King
AN amateur drama company has devised Southend’s sauciest stage – and it’s positively revolutionary.
Southend Shakespeare Company has designed and built a revolving stage for the bedroom scenes in the am-dram group’s latest production, A Flea in Her Ear, by Georges Feydeau.
The production features a disreputable Paris hotel, the Coq D’Or, and a key feature of the fictitious hotel are the revolving beds.
Director Madeleine Ayres explained: “If there’s a spot of hanky-panky taking place, and a disgruntled spouse or the police burst in, the bed can be revolved behind the wall and suddenly there’s just a harmless old gentleman sitting there.”
The Palace Theatre, Westcliff, where the farce is set to run until the end of the week, doesn’t have a revolving stage, so Madeleine determined to build her own.
DIY expert Peter Finlay, a member of the Southend Shakespeare Company, mounted his construction on a garden umbrella-stand and castors to create the fast-revolve effect.
Frugal Mr Finlay is due to direct SSC’s next production, Shakespeare’s Henry V. He said: “I’ll find a use for the revolving stage in Henry V, so the cost can be spread across two productions. But the way a revolving stage is used in a Shakespeare history play is likely to be a bit more respectable.”
A Flea in Her Ear runs at the Dixon Studio in the Palace from tonight until Saturday. It starts at 7.45pm nightly and there is a matinee on Saturday at 3pm.
Call 01702 351135 for tickets or more information.
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