Cold Comfort Farm

Adapted from the novel by Stella Gibbons by Paul Doust

Directed by Kim Gillespie

Flora Poste, having been orphaned is looking for relatives with whom to live. After rejecting a number of others, she chooses the Starkadders, relatives on her mother's side, who live in the isolated Cold Comfort Farm, near the fictional Sussex village of Howling. Greeting her as "Robert Poste's child", they take her in to repay some unexplained wrong done to her father.

Each of the extended family has some long-festering emotional problem caused by ignorance, hatred or fear; and the farm is badly run, supposedly cursed, and presided over by the unseen presence of Aunt Ada Doom, who is said to be mad through having seen "something nasty in the woodshed".

Flora, a level-headed urban woman, applies modern common sense to their problems and helps them all adapt to the twentieth century.

This production ran in the Garrick main theatre between 1st and 5th April 2008.

After reviewing one too many lurid novels about the imaginary joys of country life in the 1920s, Stella Gibbons set out to explode their clichés once and for all by writing the definitive Lady Chatterlyesque comedy Cold Comfort Farm. It didn't work (see the BBC's gurning Lark Rise - adaptation) but that doesn't stop it being very funny and Paul Doust's masterful script gives excellent scope for this first-rate cast to show exactly how spot-on her caricatures still are.

The production itself's a ground-breaking marriage between our much-loved Lichfield Players and four professional actors that allows director Kim Gillespie to score multiple hits. Impossible to mention everyone here but a special word must go to professional Georgina Stamp as no-nonsense heroine Flora Poste who brings an air of glamorous Vogue-reading realism to the fey airs of Cold Comfort Farm.

Similarly Rob Pass as cousin Reuben brilliantly evoked the play's other realist who, when rejected by Flora, has plans B, C and D practically to hand.

Our very own Stephen Brunton is delightfully ambiguous as talent-spotting Hollywood Scout Mr Neck while Alexander D'Andrea as his discovery the Rudolph Valentino-like Sethis the quintessence of groomed self-absorbtion.

Brian Todd blossoms as the bullying evangelist Amos Starkadder lured out of his rut by promises of wider opportunities to star, while Adrienne Swallow apparently needed only a week to master that consummate monster Aunt Ada Doom who saw something nasty in the wood shed.

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Add the ramshackle farm's wonderfully clever set writhing with symbolic sukebind and falling to pieces if anyone even looked at it, plus some ingeniously mobile staging and you have an evening far above the common providing sophisticated laughs and a barn-full of good old-fashioned fun.

PHIL PREECE

ABOUT THE PRO-AM PRODUCTION

Since the Lichfield Garrick opened in July 2003, The Lichfield Players took up the daunting challenge of staging five productions every season in the newly-opened theatre. Part of their challenge was to increase their audiences to match the demands and standards of a professional theatre venue – a challenge they are proud to have met.

Now in their 65th anniversary year, the Players are celebrating by linking up with the professional Lichfield Garrick Rep Company to stage a unique ‘Pro-Am’ production of Cold Comfort Farm.

On stage audiences will not only recognize the familiar faces from the Players, but also those of professional actors from the Garrick Rep Company. The production will be directed by acclaimed Director, Kim Gillespie, whose previous credits at the Garrick have included; Central Line’s; Hedda Gabler, Much Ado About Nothing, Tartuffe and Beaux Stratagem. The partnership between professional and amateur companies is also going on behind the scenes where costume, stage management and set design are being shared.

Sarah Stanley, Chairman of the Players, and Adrian Jackson, Artistic and Executive Director of The Lichfield Garrick, commented: ”We are delighted with the progress so far and this production is set to be a great triumph for both organisations. We have been planning this collaboration for the past 18 months and it’s fantastic to see it all coming together, The chosen play - Cold Comfort Farm - is ideal in that it offers opportunities for a large cast, fine drama, comedy and choreography”.