Review - Forget-Me-Knot by David Tristram

One of the hardest things for an actor is holding the audience’s interest alone on stage without speaking – and for the first few minutes of ‘Forget-Me-Knot’, that is exactly the task of Simon Lynch; not only does he rise to the challenge admirably, but his shambling entrance, awkward removal and dropping of coat, faux-important shuffling of papers on his desk and frustrated wait for his unseen colleague to answer the phone immediately give us the nature of his character, and are a triumph of talented acting and the skilled directing of Steve Reading.

By the time we meet the recipient of his next phone call, the abrupt, arrogant Mrs Zeinfeld, played superbly by Helen Reading, we are drawn into the confused and confusing world of Detective Inspector Munroe, and the hilarity has already begun.

We can sympathise to an extent with the Inspector’s difficulties: he has on his hands a man who appears to be Robert Zeinfeld, but who has apparently lost his memory, is in the wrong town and may or may not be recognised by his wife. Drew Adcock as Robert (or not...) is an excellent foil to the Inspector’s impatience to get the bottom of the mystery, as he by turns complies meekly with his questioning and shows his own frustration at being told he is, then is not Robert. The quick-fire exchanges between the two are a highlight of the play, including such lines as: ‘The balls may ache, but that’s no excuse for letting grammar slip.’

The staging supports the play’s fast pace perfectly: the main stage is split to depict two separate rooms in the police station which are alternately lit to provide a smooth transition between scenes, while a small thrust stage houses the few domestic scenes, primarily giving us an insight into another of the Inspector’s problems – his relationship with his busy doctor wife, played with a perfect mixture of authority and panic by Amy Burns, who is reluctant to come to the station to give her medical opinion on the apparent amnesiac – until his name is mentioned...

Who is the mystery caller to Robert’s phone? Why does Mrs Zeinfeld identify this man as her husband and then claim she has never seen him before? What is the significance of topiary pheasants – I mean peacocks? And frying pans? Is the real Robert Zeinfeld in Leicester or Blackpool?

To find out, you’ll have to come along to see this very funny play at The Apollo Theatre. You’ll be as confused as the Inspector – but considerably more entertained and amused.

‘Forget-Me-Knot’ will be performed tonight, and then next Tuesday to Friday inclusive; shows start at 7.30pm and are kindly sponsored by the Vectis Sunrise Rotary Club.

'Forget-Me-Knot' by David Tristram - The Apollo Players

If you enjoy a rollicking laugh-out-loud comedy with elements of farce, you could do no better than come along to see ‘Forget-Me-Knot’ by David Tristram, the next play to be performed by The Apollo Players.

Someone who may or may not be Robert Zeinfeld is found wandering through the streets of Leicester in the early hours of the morning. How did he get there? Is he who he appears? How did he get the bruise on his head? Has he really lost his memory? And what secrets are held by Robert’s wife? How much help can she be to Inspector Monroe, who is trying to solve the mystery? And where does Monroe’s own wife fit in?

And in fact, is anyone who and what they claim to be?

The play, directed by Steve Reading, brings together experienced regulars Drew Adcock, Amy Burns and Helen Reading and introduces Simon Lynch to the Apollo stage.

The plot has been described as having ‘more twists and turns than a buckled slinky’, but all will become clear in the end...or will it?

We are grateful for sponsorship of this production to The Vectis Sunrise Rotary Club, who meet at 7.30am every Wednesday morning at the Riverside Centre to share ideas, pool skills and raise money for local and international organisations.  To find out more, go along or phone Jeremy on 01983 539530.

‘Forget-Me-Knot’ is staged from 11-19 May (not Sunday or Monday) at the Apollo theatre, Pyle Street, Newport; tickets may be obtained via our website at http://www.apollo-theatre.org.uk/forget-me-knot/

Photo, courtesy of Paul Jennings, shows l-r Amy Burns, Drew Adcock, Simon Lynch, Steve Reading and Helen Reading in rehearsal.

He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven

WB Yeats

HAD I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

I have a special relationship with this poem: I encountered it while studying Yeats in college, and I loved it on first reading, so much so that I copied it out – I was into calligraphy at the time – and displayed it on my student room wall.

It speaks to me of the magic of being in love: of finding someone so amazing that you want to give them the world; you’d almost literally do anything for them. Later in my life, this love expanded to include my children, but rather than spreading the cloths of heaven under their feet, I would wrap them round my children to protect and warm them.

Yet the poem speaks also of the vulnerability of love – in giving yourself, you are also giving away the power to hurt you, as anyone who has ever suffered a broken relationship knows. The poem ends with a plea to the loved on not to trample on the dreams we have built around them.

The last three lines, reflecting this vulnerability, recur in ‘The Loves of Cass McGuire’, spoken by characters who have suffered rejection and despair, and are a plea not to destroy their fantasies, which are all they have left to sustain them.

It leaves me reflecting that maybe we all, as humans, sometimes deal with unpleasant truths in our lives by deciding to see things in a different way – a way that supports us, whether or not it accurately reflects the objective truth. And what is truth anyway?

Introducing ‘The Loves of Cass McGuire’

The next play to be staged at The Apollo will be ‘The Loves of Cass McGuire’ by the renowned Irish playwright Brian Friel.

Set in 1960’s Ireland, the play follows the fortunes of Cass as she returns to her homeland after half a century in New York on Skid Row, shacked up with the owner of the greasy spoon she worked in. Her younger brother Harry has made a life for himself and his wife Alice and has a prosperous business and four children, only one of whom, Dom, still lives at home, as does Cass and Harry’s elderly – and very deaf – mother.

Alice and Harry prepare to welcome Cass home but, expecting a staid, respectable American spinster aunt, they are horrified to witness the whisky-drinking, smoking, swearing, garrulous Cass going on the rampage through their home town. Embarrassed by her, they shelve plans for a welcome home party for all the neighbours and instead dump her in Eden House, a retirement home.

There, Cass encounters Trilbe Costello, Mr Ingram and Pat Quinn, all of whom have also experienced disappointment and rejection in their lives, and have found ways of dealing with their hurt. Initially scornful of the ‘gooks’ in ‘the workhouse’, Cass find her own determination gradually eroding until, beaten into submission, she is driven to find her own way out of her despair.

As with many of Friel’s plays, ‘Cass McGuire’ is a true tragicomedy – there are moments of great humour underpinned by thought-provoking and emotional  truths.

‘The Loves of Cass McGuire’ is at The Apollo from 24 March to 1 April (not Sunday or Monday). Tickets are available now via our website.

Apollo Players: The Ladykillers by Graham Linehan

Right from the start, this play has a lot going for it: Graham Linehan is a gifted comedy writer, famous for creating such classics as ‘Black Books’, ‘The IT Crowd’ and ‘Father Ted’, so his rework of a classic Ealing comedy is sure to be a quality script. Add to that an experienced and insightful director and a highly talented cast, and you have a winning formula. And that’s even without the brilliantly constructed set which makes inspired use of every inch of stage space.

Every character is finely drawn, even to the group of little old ladies twittering in, led by Chris Turvey as Mrs Tromleyton, ready to enjoy a concert and leaving slightly bewildered at the cacophony, but managing in the process to spook Louis Harvey, the mafia-style gangster with an aversion to old ladies played with a wonderful air of menace tinged with vulnerability by Dave Newton.

Ian Moth’s portrayal of blustering Major Courtney reminded me of Stephen Fry’s General Melchett, complete with impressive moustache, while Pete Harris’s Harry Robinson was every inch the classic spiv. Yet each of these supposedly hard men had his vulnerability: the Major rushing to the toilet at the prospect of actually going through with the robbery and Harry popping pills and obsessively cleaning everything in sight.

Only One-Round, played to perfection by Paul Gwinnett, seemed to have no qualms at the prospect of committing the planned crime – and perhaps that was because he didn’t quite understand the implications. His misunderstandings made for some great comedy however.

Holding this band of misfits together – well, almost – was the mastermind of the project, Professor Marcus, played with brilliant comic timing and characterisation by Michael Arnell, whose portrayal, as events unfolded, of a man thinking on his feet and half a beat away from total meltdown at times was a lynchpin of the piece.

The other lynchpin was Mrs Wilberforce, played with a great combination of sweetness, innocence and guile by Marylyn Ford. Her conversations with Nick Turvey’s local policeman Constable Macdonald were some of the evening’s funniest, evoking her journey from dotty old lady to criminal mastermind perfectly.

First night audiences left with comments such as ‘Absolutely fabulous’, ‘Hilarious’ and ‘Brilliant’ on their lips. You have a few more chances to find out just how brilliant for yourself – the show runs tonight (Saturday) and from Tuesday 7th to Saturday 11^th February starting at 7.30pm.

But hurry – tickets are selling fast!

'The Ladykillers'

Most people will know of this immensely entertaining crime caper as one of Ealing Studios’ finest offerings, in which the redoubtable elderly widow Mrs. Wilberforce, who likes to report suspicious behaviour to the police, rents out rooms in her house to the dapper Professor Marcus (originally and unforgettably played by Alec Guinness) and his cohort of thieves without honour, constantly bickering among themselves.  

Posing as a string quintet, they pull off a bank robbery, but slip up in front of the old lady as they try to escape.  Agreed that they need to murder her, the bumbling crooks prove no match for Mrs Wilberforce’s old-fashioned Victorian values: they’re dispatched to their early graves with witty heartlessness, as she goes magisterially on her way, hatpin firmly in place. 

The stage play of 'The Ladykillers' has been adapted from the film by the prolific pen of Graham Linehan, also famous for such comedies as 'Father Ted', 'The IT Crowd', 'Count Arthur Strong' and 'Black Books'.

This is a fascinating and complex black comedy which transcends its apparently simplistic plot: it can be seen as an allegory on the state of Britain at mid-century (it was originally filmed in 1955), symbolising decrepit England in extremis, with its feeble, grasping, self-deluded citizens and the faded idealism of the British Empire that is holding the nation back – or you can simply sit back and enjoy its near flawless script and laugh at the familiar but somehow still sinister jokes.

'The Ladykillers' is at The Apollo Theatre from February 3rd to 11th (not Sunday or Monday) at 7.30pm. Tickets are now available on our website!

'Wyrd Sisters' - The Apollo Players

Terry Pratchett is widely regarded as a god of fantasy literature. To attempt to stage a play based on one of his novels is in itself commendable, and to achieve the mixture of charm, hilarity and sheer silliness worthy of the book and play versions of 'Wyrd Sisters' is a credit to directors Dan Burns and Eve Fradgley, and to their cast.


The play opens with some slightly familiar lines: 'When shall we three meet again?', delivered by a trio of suitably weird-looking witches, the Wyrd Sisters of the title. The reply however is less Shakespearean: 'I can make next Wednesday,' says a witch, consulting her diary.

This sets the atmosphere for the play, introducing characters at once familiar and strange: the witches themselves are dominated by Granny Weatherwax:, played with hilarious gravity by Carole Crow, with homely, motherly Nanny Ogg and young, inexperienced romantic Magrat Garlick, brought to dreamy-eyed life by Carol Simpson.

Meanwhile in the castle, the ghost of a murdered King (David Pratchett) waits to get his revenge on evil Duke Felmet: Simon Cardew's manic portrayal of the guilty Duke sinking further and further into madness, trying to scrub invisible blood from his hands with a nail file is a joy, while Glenys Lloyd-Williams flounces around the stage cracking her whip, perfect as his scheming wife.

A baby and a crown are spirited away into an acting troop - babies, Granny explains, are easy to hide as there are so many of them, while crowns have a habit of being found. But when both are needed to save the kingdom, magic spells, accompanied by pyrotechnics and smoke of course, along with a play within a play, save the day and in true Pratchett fashion the evil Duke and Duchess are defeated and the true king - sort of - rules. Magrat gets her man - the Fool, played by Mark Duffus - and all live happily ever after.

Other notable mentions go to John Sole as the leader of the actors, Amy Burns as Tomjon and Dave Talbot as the Chamberlain, and they are supported by a background cast of Apollo actors taking on various roles including guards, robbers and actors.

'Wyrd Sisters' is perfect pre-Christmas viewing with its pantomime-like features and humour, and is suitable for all the family. it runs from Tuesday 13th to Saturday 17th December with performance starting at 7.30pm.