The new season at FET at the Theatre Le Colombier, les
Cabannes, opened last night (22nd March with four talented actors
presenting extracts from works by some of Britain’s leading late 20th
century dramatists, called “4 Love”
The whole evening was planned and directed by Delena Kidd
who interspersed the dramatic scenes with a commentary both witty, informative
and containing illuminating personal anecdotes. Ably assisted by Nick Waring,
Claire Carrie and our own Donald Douglas the six pieces chosen exhibited a
range of performances and emotions.We know what to expect from Michael Frayn and Alan Ayckbourn : words, wit and farce. John Osborne’s “Look Back in Anger” is part of much of our generation’s cultural heritage and Noel Coward is just himself – elegant wit, music but real subjects treated below the surface.
Unexpected (though most of us have seen the TV film) was how moving Alan Bennett’s portrayal of Guy Burgess in “An Englishman Abroad” was. Ms Kidd and Nick Waring played the pathos and seedy despair of the Moscow apartment perfectly. Many of the audience were, of course, expats themselves and although we have the freedom to travel (well, up to now..) we miss simple things just as Burgess missed his Savile Row suits and cosmopolitan friends. But what a sad figure he cut despite the desperate, whisky fuelled, humour.
Donald gave us a portrayal of a president and an officer,
which would have been funny if it was not so potentially true. Purporting to be
a posthumous work of Harold Pinter (how prescient for a playwright who died
some10 years ago) the Pres in question “nuked” London, the capital as he
thought of France. Then appraised too late of his error, nuked Paris in
reprisal. Donald’s duet with Claire Carrie from the Osborne play was another
view of broken love, and a situation probably familiar to many of the audience.
One thing we audiences at the Colombier have learned is just
how versatile these actors can be. Delena Kidd played an elderly thespian
forgetting all her lines, an acerbic snob, and a lovely portrayal of Corale
Browne. Claire Carrie was a desperate housewife and a passionate lover; Nick
Waring superb as the crawling male equivalent of Beverley Moss (remember
Abigail’s Party?) in the hilarious Ayckbourn excerpt and the pathetic Burgess.
And there was singing.
Donald in his variety of roles even managed to look
presidential in his MAGA baseball cap. Making Les Cabannes great again is well
on course with FET.
