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Engaged.
Premiered on 3 October 1877 at Haymarket Theatre London.
Part of the 2004 Pitlochry Festival Theatre Summer Season for full details
of the theatre
& season
here.
Playwright - W.S. Gilbert.
Director - John Durnin.
Assistant Director - Kate Nelson.
Set Designer - Sarah-Jane McCelland.
Costume Designer - Monika Nisbet.
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 two intervals.
Reviewer - Thelma Good.
Gets OTT performances it needs.
Engaged - Pitlochry Festival Theatre Production.
Maggie MacFarlane - Helen Logan, Mrs MacFarlane - Amanda Bellamy,
and Angus MacLeod - Steven McNicoll.
© photographer 2004
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We love the songs and operas he co-created with Sullivan but he wrote
plays too from his pen alone. In Engaged there's a somewhat extreme plot
involving comic Scots who turn out to be sharp as well, a man unable to
stop himself getting engaged and complications of inheritance and marriage.
The Pitlochry cast's over the top performances are exactly what Gilbert's
play demands, while the text's rhythms and cadences reflect Gilbert's
skill as a lyricist. Both actors and script directed by John Durnin ensure
Engaged moves along gathering laughter.
Pitlochry's productions are renowned for sets and costumes as well as
strong casting and Engaged is a visual treat particularly in the costume
department. Heiress Minnie Symperson, is a dream in cream, one of her
rivals Belinda Treherne wears striking and sometimes odd in colour or
symmetry concoctions, the Scots have very tartan costumes when they go
to London, the gents are stylish and the maid's lace cap towers over all.
The set itself echoes those created more than a century ago, a ormolu
framing set which contains a Scottish rural cottage with splendid view
or an ornate London drawing room or conservatory complete with bubbling
fountain. Everything in the production follows the style of those times
but it's topical.
Engaged - Pitlochry Festival Theatre Production.
Minnie Symperson - Victoria Balnaves and Belinda Treherne - Francesca
Dymond.
© photographer 2004
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It's about a society where money matters, the Pitlochry audience laughed
knowingly at the Royal Indestructible Bank. Cheviot Hill is a young man
who can't resist proposing, a dreadful wet really, women can see he's a
serial disappointment but can't quite resist his faux-poetic
charm, convincingly played by Conrad Hornby. Rory Murray gives
a dangerous attractive air to Cheviot's friend, Benvawney who's paid
a legacy to keep Cheviot out of the marriage bed. As two of the women who
think they're going to marry Cheviot, Victoria Belnaves's Minnie
is a picture as she reacts to the young man's artless words, showing she
knows more about men than you'd expect, while Francesca Dymond sparkles
as the obviously been in the social swing a bit Belinda. Despite this she
falls for Cheviot when derailed up north, their declaration of fidelity
making them joined in a permanent way if the ground they stood on was Scottish.
There is fine support from the other actors including Helen Logan
gallus as the third fiancee Maggie, Steven McNicoll wily as her real
love Angus, Emily Pennant-Rea as the maid who manages to resist and
Jonathan Battersby as Symperson the father who hopes for the best
(value) for himself and his Minnie.
It's a revival sauced in the flamboyance and flummery of the age of Victoria
and laced with the satire of how like us they are.
© Thelma Good 30 April 2004 - Published on EdinburghGuide.com
Cast: - Maggie MacFarlane - Helen Logan, Angus
MacLeod - Steven McNicoll, Cheviot Hill - Conrad Hornby, Mrs MacFarlane
- Amanda Bellamy, Symperson - Jonathan Battersby, Belinda Treherne - Francesca
Dymond, Belvawney - Rory Murray, Major McGillicuddy - Richard Addison, Minnie
Symperson - Victoria Balnaves and Parker - Emily Pennant-Rea.
On different performances members of the wedding party played in rotation
by Iain McEwan, Fran Norris, Arthur Partland, June Ross, Keith Simpson,
Betty Stark and Benita Wylie.
Engaged's Dates & times of Performances :-
.
* means it is
possible to see two different plays that day.
Preview 30 April at
2pm.
Opens 30 April at 8pm then
7 May at 8pm,
*8 May at 2pm, 14 May at 8pm, *22 May at 8pm, *29 May at 2pm.
3 June at 8pm, *9 June at 2pm, 11 June at 8pm, 14 June at 8pm, *19 June
at 8pm, 28 June at 8pm.
2 July at 8pm, 8 July at 8pm, *17 July at 2pm, 23 July at 8pm, *29 July
at 8pm.
*4 Aug at 8pm, 12 Aug at 8pm, *21 Aug at 8pm, *25 Aug at 2pm.
*1 Sept at 8pm, 10 Sept at 8pm, 17 Sept at 8pm, 21 Sept at 8pm, *22 Sept
at 2pm, 27 Sept at 8pm.
*2 Oct at 2pm, 8 Oct at 8pm then last performance 14 Oct at 8pm.
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