Saturday 6 August 2016

One Man Two Guvnors @ToadsTheatre - we find great theatre in Torquay

One Man Two Guvnors in Torquay 
Those of you who actually know me in the real world might have been wondering when I would start talking about theatre in our new home town. Amazingly it only took just over a week from us getting the flat keys to sitting down in a beautiful little theatre for a well- deserved evening out! It wasn't a factor in the purchase, but we were both happy to discover the Little Theatre is a mere ten minutes walk away from our front door. We strolled down to check out the venue in daylight. It's a beautiful repurposed church (reduce, reuse, recycle!) and the resident company, TOADS (which I think probably stands for Torquay Operatic and Amateur Dramatic Society) have done a great job renovating the inside. There's now velvet drapes falling from the old stone arches all the way up the sides of seating which is proper cushioned theatre flip seats on a pretty steep rake so everyone gets a good view of the stage. I loved the monochrome paintings in alcoves high above the audience.

TOADS Little Theatre 
TOADS current production is One Man Two Guvnors, the farce which got such great reviews when it starred James Corden at the National Theatre. We didn't get around to watching the NTlive broadcast so jumped at the chance to see the play performed live here. It's a fantastic script and I thought TOADS did a wonderfully professional job. It's difficult to make such intricate chaos look easy and we certainly didn't feel like we were watching an amateur company. Everyone was perfectly cast and we loved the musical scene change interludes. I did start writing about my favourite characters, but soon realised I was going to be naming them all! As a story, One Man Two Guvnors is completely improbable which makes it all the more fun and we both laughed thoughout. I'd highly recommend this show to everyone, even if you don't really consider yourself a theatre person.

The TOADS production of One Man Two Guvnors runs until the 13th August so, if you're in Torbay, click through to the TOADS website and book your tickets before they all sell out!

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