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The Matchmaker
Part of the 2003 Pitlochry Festival Theatre Season for full details of
the theatre &
season
here .
Playwright - Thornton Wilder.
Director - Ian Grieve.
Set and Costume Designer - Charles Cusick Smith.
Assistant Costume Designer - Anya Glinski.
Lighting Designer - Mark Pritchard.
Company - Pitlochry Theatre
Company .
Cast - here .
Venue - Pitlochry Theatre e-mail booking
01796 484626.
Dates and Times - here .
Run Time - 2 hours 30 mins including 15 mins interval though may
run longer due to laughter.
Reviewer - Thelma Good.
Sets fire to laughter.
The Matchmaker - Pitlochry Theatre Production.
Jimmy Chisholm as Malachi and Martyn James as Vandergelder.
© Keith Brame 2003.
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It gave rise to the Musical Hello Dolly! and it's based on earlier plays
but The Matchmaker, first performed in 1938, is a really sprightly play.
This Pitlochry production sets their 2003 season off to fine start, and
Thornton Wilder gives the actors lots to fill each character with. They
all have that something a bit special about them. It's true of the cast
directed by the extremely able Ian Grieve from this year's company which
has a mix of well-kent faces at Pitlochry and new ones who fit right in.
Martyn James on top form is Vandergelder, the affluent shopowner
of Yonkers has become so rich he decides to take a wife. When he asks
a matchmaker, Ann Scott Jones's sharply realised Mrs Dolly Levi
to find him one, he soon discovers he's not the only one wanting to hear
wedding bells. His young niece and ward Ermengarde, Shelley Otway,
has fallen for an artist Ambrose, played with attractive flair by Guy
Fearon. Vandergelder tells her it will not do and sends her off to
New York with Dolly, but not before Ambrose has found out where she's
going and made a favourable impression on Dolly.
Vandergelder's going to New York too to meet the widow Dolly's found for
him Mrs Malloy, Carrie Ellis, who runs a hat shop with her assistant
Louise Bolton. He's leaving his establishment in the care of his
clerks, Cornelius Hackle, Philip Hazelby and Barnaby Tucker, Jamie
Chapman who make a good double act. They decide to live a little and
go off to the big city themselves. Once there the Vandergelder party,
Dolly and his just hired new clerk Malachi, Jimmy Chisholm, in
one of those parts that give full rein to his comic invention, and Cornelius
and Barnaby accidentally converge at Mrs Molloy's shop. As they're supposed
to be back in Yonkers Cornelius and Barnaby have to hide and more and
more comedy ensues.
The farce continues in full steam in the third act when two sets of people
try to avoid being seen by Vandergelder. One party eats a fine meal while
one waiter August, Steven McNicoll gets amusingly confused then
battered in magnificent silent comedies involving first Chisholm's
Malachi then Head waiter Rudolf, Dougal Lee. It's all performed
on a Art Noveau inspired set which moves from the Yonker's store to hat
shop and restaurant and then in the final act to a New York apartment.
Designer Charles Cusick Smith has done the production proud. In the final
act new to Pitlochry, Lynette Clarke, Miss Flora van Huysen is
a fine hostess and Janet Michael, who also doubles in the first
act as Gertrude, gives us another cameo from the mistress of dottiness
as the Cook while more and more people arrive. And it maybe a farce but
Wilder also amusingly looks at the way we work, love and play. There are
many telling lines, some delivered to us the audience for Wilder, who
also wrote Our Town, was a playwright who developed the way plays are
done. Malachi's comic sermon to us on one sin at a time is a gem.
The 2003 company look to be in fine heart and fan the mirth of this excellent
farce. I'm sure they'll find even more fun in their parts for the Matchmaker
is set to fire much laughter in the Pitlochry audience until October.
© Thelma Good 2 May 2003. - Published on EdinburghGuide.com
Bit of History - The first British Production of the Matchmaker
directed by Tyrone Guthrie was at the Edinburgh International Festival
in 1947 at the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh.
Cast:
Horage Vandergelder - Martyn James.
Ambrose Kemper - Guy Fearton.
Joe Scanlon/Cabman - Moray Treadwell.
Gertrude/Van Huysen's Cook - Janet Michael.
Cornelius Hackle - Philip Hazelby.
Ermengarde - Shelly Otway.
Malachi Stack - Jimmy Chisholm.
Mrs Dolly Levi - Ann Scott Jones.
Barnaby Tucker - Jamie Campbell.
Mrs Irene Malloy - Carrie Ellis.
Minnie Fay - Louise Bolton.
Rudolf - Dougall Lee.
August/Band Leader - Steven McNicoll.
Gypsy - on different performances Ian Moyes, Allan Webster, Benita Wylie
or Betty Stark.
Miss Flora van Huysen - Lynette Clarke.
Lodge Band - Members of the Community.
The Matchmaker Dates & times of Performances:-
.
May Friday 2nd
May, 8pm, Saturday 3rd May, 2pm, Saturday 3rd May, 8pm, Friday 9th May,
8pm, Saturday 10th May, 2pm, Friday 16th May, 8pm, Saturday 24th May,
8pm, Wednesday 28th May, 8pm, Saturday 31st May, 2pm.
June Thursday 5th June, 8pm, Monday 9th June, 8pm, Saturday 14th
June, 8pm, Tuesday 17th June, 8pm, Wednesday 18th June, 2pm, Saturday
28th June, 2pm.
July Saturday 5th July, 8pm, Thursday 10th July, 8pm, Saturday
12th July, 2pm, Friday 18th July, 8pm, Tuesday 22nd July, 8pm, Wednesday
23rd July, 2pm, Thursday 31st July, 8pm.
August Friday 8th August, 8pm, Saturday 16th August, 8pm, Thursday
21st August, 8pm Tuesday 26th August, 8pm, Wednesday 27th August, 2pm.
September Monday 1st September, 8pm, Tuesday 9th September, 8pm,
Wednesday 10th September, 2pm, Monday 15th September, 8pm, Saturday 20th
September, 8pm, Wednesday 24th September, 8pm, Tuesday 30th September,
8pm.
October Wednesday 1st October, 2pm, Wednesday 8th October, 8pm
and final performance Thursday 16th October, 8pm.
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