the english theatre company

Founded in 2016, the English Theatre Company is a group of around 45 actors and technical crew that stage English language plays in and around the Gers, Haute-Garonne and Haute Pyrénées départements in south-west France.

Our May production is now to be a play entitled ‘Quartet,’ by Ronald Harwood. Quartet is a quirky, saucy comedy abut three retired opera singers living out their twilight years in a retirement home for musicians. They had all worked together in the past but it was not until they were joined by a former star of the opera world that old rivalries resurface. Chaos ensues in the form of bawdy comedy as our heroes battle to grow old disgracefully.

A film of Quartet was made in 2012. Both the stage play and the film have been extremely successful. We very much hope you will be able to join us at one of the three venues where we will be staging this play in May:

Ste Dode 11th May
Boudrac 18th May
Marciac 25th May

To book your tickets:
Call here: 06 04 12 96 09
E-mail here: ticketsales@englishtheatrecompany32.fr
or

Cecily, Reggie and Wifred, all famous opera singers in their day, are now spending their golden years in a comfortable retirement home for musicians.
Marmalade loving Reggie takes life very seriously. He is proud of the fact he is the only one who has paid for his lodgings. Cecily an ardent listener of music, totters through the French windows to spy on the gardener whenever he takes off his shirt. Wilfred is a roué with a one-track mind; more like a well fertilised dirt track. The three of them rub along pretty well, sharing their musical memories, until this comfortable existence is thrown into confusion by the arrival of Jean, another opera singer, once married to Reggie. After a succession of failed marriages, she has now fallen on hard times. She manages to completely disrupt the equilibrium of the other three, by still acting like the diva she once was.

Each year the Home celebrates the birthday of the great opera composer Guiseppe Verdi. In times gone by the four singers were well known for performing Verdi’s Rigoletto. Trouble beckons, tempers are lost and sparks fly when Jean refuses to take part in a revival of their famous quartet from this opera.

Quartet asks us to join in a celebration of artistry but is it even possible there could be one more show stopping finale?

Paul Taylor, writing in the Independent, describes the play as an ‘unashamed – no shameless,’ vehicle for four feisty old troupers whose task is to make us laugh a lot, sigh a little and cry a little, as we are taken into the bittersweet world of facing up to age and mortality.

 

In November we will be staging the Olivier Award winning comedy The 39 Steps at theatres in Lectoure and Trie-sur-Baïse.

As previously announced, our next production in May was to be “An Inspector Calls,’ by J B Priestley. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond our control, we are unable to stage this play this year, but would hope to do so at a later date.

Past performances by the English Theatre Company include Calendar Girls, ‘Allo, ‘Allo, The Vicar of Dibley, Under Milk Wood, Absurd Person Singular and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead among many others.