Quartet

Bridgetown Repertory’s next production is the stage play ‘Quartet’, a play written by Ronald Harwood which will be directed by Susie Benson-Parry.

The show is a funny and poignant play about life, friends, and mortality, and deals with the inevitability we all face, that is getting old.

All four characters in the stage play are aged opera singers, now residing in the same retirement home for retired opera singers in Kent, England.

Each year, on the tenth of October, there is a concert to celebrate Verdi’s birthday. Cecily, Reggie and Wilfred are planning their contribution to the up-and-coming concert.

Then Jean arrives to stay at the home, someone who was once married to Reggie, disrupting the equilibrium of their friendship.

The play has been cast with four experienced actors, Suzanne Bottomley, Sue Williams, Robert Benson-Parry, and Mark Moscarda.

With only a cast of four, it means all of those on stage have a major role with a lot of dialogue to learn.

Mark Moscarda has the humorous role of Wilfred, a person who has become an incorrigible dirty old man, a badly behaving randy old man who is frequently caught bottom-pinching.

Mark enjoys the challenge of the large role and explains how he manages to learn his part. “My method of learning my lines is I record the entire play along with my partner. I used a different character voice for Reggie, a complete opposite to my role, a character who is an obsessive reader and note-taker, someone who is a little withdrawn but always self-composed. My partner voices the female roles, then I listen constantly to the play on repeat.

“I then delete my character’s voice, Wilfred, leaving a quiet space, enabling me to rehearse my part to the tape recording, all the while listening to the other actors in the play. It really is a quick way to learn a lot of dialogue, getting the timing right, and listening for the clues for when it is my time to speak.

“I will encourage all to come along and enjoy a wonderful night’s entertainment.”

Sue Bottomley has the role of the aging diva Jean, who puts the cat among the pigeons when arriving to stay at the home, a performance of a proud woman, miserable and resentful, who finds herself reduced to joining the ‘inmates’ on a charitable basis, ‘Me on charity!’.

So how does Sue like playing a character who is tactless, overbearing, constantly reminding everyone of her Diva status? Sue goes on to explain, “I love playing the role of someone who knows what it takes to be a problem, for me I like putting on a mask and being someone else, especially one with an interesting persona.

“I immerse myself into the character, taking on her personality and attitudes, I get to live the life of someone who is so opposite to my own personality, for me it is empowering, the more miserable, bitter and nasty the role I play, all the better, once I’m off the stage I return to being my old self again.”

The play will be staged in July, starting on the Thursday 13th, 14th, 15th, and a matinee on 16th. Then the following week on 20th, 21st, 22nd and a second matinee on 23rd July.

The script is well written and presents portraits of four wonderful personalities. This play is guaranteed to entertain and hopefully allow us to think how we might behave when our times come.

The play should not be missed because the best entertainment ever, is live theatre with local talent.