Having decided to stage the ever popular 'Allo 'Allo in May, we held auditions and selected our cast. Our co-directors sent us away to learn our lines before rehearsals began. Those rehearsals started last week.

However, after just two rehearsals — which were hilarious — the Coronavirus crisis forced us to postpone the production until further notice. We are determined to stage this classic non-PC comedy as soon as we are permitted to.

In the meantime it is not Au Revoir, Au Revoir, more like À Bientöt, À Bientöt !

The fun and the hard work are now over. Mad Moments has been performed and the players are now ‘resting’ until they are next required to go on stage.  Also having a well deserved rest are those often unsung heroes who make performances possible: stage management, prop makers, technical team, publicity providers, ticket sellers, front of house folk and bar staff. Our director, David Alcock, once said that everyone in a production was of equal importance and I am sorry if I have not included every category in my listing.

Mad Moments was performed at Marciac, Letoure, Sainte Dode and Boudrac. The latter is a new venue for the English Theatre Company and has splendid facilities even if the stairs do creak! Our audiences were good and their applause and appreciative comments made all the time spent rehearsing and learning words and moves worthwhile. Everyone played their part well in spite of coughs, sneezes and various aches and pains. No-one actually ‘broke a leg’ and there were no casualties -  apart from a broom!

Now it is nearly Christmas and everyone is preparing for that but also looking forward to the next production. What will it be? No-one knows as yet but I am sure  it will be greeted with the same enthusiasm and dedication as the last one.

Sadly, Dave Barney, a founder member of the Company and a kind and generous sharer of his theatrical expertise will not be taking part in the next production. Paula Latuske  will not be there either to capably carry out the administration work involved in running the Company and putting on its shows. They have both returned to England for a life of, we hope not too adventurous, travelling and seeing the world.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year with many happy ‘Mad Moments’.

Gill Foster (Guest blogger)

​Depressing isn’t it? The everyday news that never seems to get any better. But help is at hand. The English Theatre Company offer you a solution. We prescribe a dose of our comic relief. We aim to banish the blues, make you smile and even laugh out loud.
 
How about some geriatric dancing – yes, really! Our tribute to the unique humour of Victoria Wood; a criminal cat; songs to pull at your heartstrings and the introduction of a very special young lady who is joining us for the first time. And of course, much much more.
 
Yesterday we were in rehearsal bringing all the acts together. Some of us wearing our costumes for the first time and a motley crew we were. Flair and imagination gone overboard! As the dates of our November performances approach with lightening speed our rehearsal schedule increases until suddenly it’s opening night. The overture is about to start …
 
Our box office is taking bookings for all four of our venues. Boudrac on 9th November at 12.00 noon; Marciac on 10th at 3.00 pm; Lectoure on 16th  at 3.00 pm and Ste Dode on 17th at 12.00 noon.
 
If you would like to spend an afternoon with us, please book as soon as you can by phone: 05 62 06 37 14 or by e-mail: etcmadmoments@gmail.com.
 
So, what depression?  Do join us.

Our revue has singing, dancing, comedy, pathos and, with our final song, fierce pride and emotion. But most of all we are offering laughter and fun! Technical and dress rehearsals start next week for the 18 cast members, ready for the first performance on Saturday 9 November.

Don't forget we are performing Mad Moments in four locations; and we're trying out two new formats as well as our usual theatre lunches to go with the 75 minute show.

At Marciac our start time is 3.00 pm and we are ringing the changes after the show with a delicious selection of home made cakes – as many as you can manage – all washed down with Cava.
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At Lectoure, because there is no provision for refreshments in the theatre, our performance begins at 3.00 pm. Plenty of time to enjoy a good lunch before the show.

Theatre with lunch is at our regular home in Sainte-Dode and, further afield than we've travelled before, at the Salle des Fêtes in Boudrac – both are a 12.00 pm start.

The cast and crew look forward to seeing old friends and new.  Come and join in the fun!

More than 200 came to see our Comedy Theatre Lunches. We received countless kind comments about this three-part lunchtime entertainment.

Our pre-lunch performances began with a performance of Eating Out, one of Alan Bennett’s recollections of his childhood in Leeds. Played by Dave Barney, it was both funny and touching with the wry observation and ironic understatement that earned Bennett a place in the forefront of contemporary writing. Next up was Well, I Never Did, a spoof of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads written by Stephen Fry and Hugh Lawrie and originally performed as a television sketch on A Bit of Fry & Lawrie. Played by Phil Faiers as Bennett’s Auntie Ivy, it drew on an exaggerated perception of the English north-south divide.
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Lastly we presented Auditions, an adaptation of an American play that was largely re-written for the ETC. The plot was simple the English Theatre Company were auditioning for the lead roles of Romeo and Juliet. The trouble was the hopeful actors all turned out to be hopeless. Mocking amateur theatre has become a popular genre in professional theatre in recent years with The Play That Goes Wrong and many others. Auditions was our tongue-in-cheek volte-face — amateurs mocking themselves, but hopefully in a professional manner.

We performed at three venues over two weekends and such were the encouraging plaudits that we will undoubtedly stage similar events in the future.

We had a technical and dress rehearsal session today in the village hall at Ste-Dode. Tomorrow we open in Panassac at Austins. We are so looking forward to performing the real thing after four weeks of rehearsals. Despite having seen everything many times over the cast and crew are still laughing out loud at some of the on-stage antics. If you are coming to one of our four performances we hope you will enjoy it. If you do, tell your friends as we will be staging another event in the autumn.

Our cast of 14 are having great fun rehearsing Auditions, the one-act play that forms part of our Comedy Theatre Lunches in February. It is a play adapted from an original work by American author Ian MacWethy and is the story of The English Theatre Company's audition sessions for the lead roles of Romeo and Juliet. Most of the auditions hilariously highlight the unsuitability of the actors for the parts they are auditioning for. Divas, dimwits, prima donnas, method actors, hooligans  — they all try for parts, but none succeed. The cast keep having to take laughter breaks in rehearsals, so we know our audiences will be in stitches. 

We are having fun rehearsing for our Comedy Theatre Lunches that will be performed in February. We have a cast of 14 players all determined to blow away those winter blues and take your minds off Brexit blues.

All venues are new for the English Theatre Company. Our lunches start with performances of Eating Out by Alan Bennett followed by Well I Never Did by Stephen Fry and finishing with a short comedy play called Auditions, specially adapted for the English Theatre Company.

The performances take just over an hour and commence promptly at 12.00 with lunch being served at 1.15.

With just two weeks to go before curtain up — actually we don't use curtains — the ticket sales for both venues are going very well. We are limited to 100 at Sainte-Dode and 60 at Caillavet and expect to sell out soon, so if you have not yet booked please hurry to avoid disappointment.
Our Saturday rehearsal on the Sainte-Dode stage was a mixture of fun and poignancy and the cast and crew are excited with the way our in-house tribute to The Fallen of World War One is capturing the mood of such a sombre period of history.