Today, I started
rehearsing a play that I first performed ten years ago. It’s official: I’m old.
‘Marry Me or Be Evicted’ holds a lot of happy memories, despite the clunky title. It’s a mash-up between a Victorian melodrama, a farce and a Comedy of Errors.
Everything that could go wrong in it does
go wrong, with hilarious results. Those aren’t my words; I’m paraphrasing the promotional blurb.
(Which I had a hand in writing, so they're actually my words after all.)
The show started life in 2004 at The Market Theatre in Hitchin, where it ran all Summer. We revisited it the following Spring for a four-week run at the Hen & Chickens (a pub theatre in Highbury & Islington), before finishing off with a weekend at the Wycombe Swan.
Saying that the show ran for four weeks in London is a bit of a white lie. It was supposed to run for a month, but we ended up cancelling most performances. It was the theatre company’s first – and last – venture onto the London Fringe and was a steep learning curve for us all. We’d booked a show for every night of the week bar Monday to ensure we’d be reviewed by the London press, without considering that a Victorian comedy melodrama wouldn’t exactly drag in punters.
There were only three of us in the cast – Catherine Stacey, Kate Kitson and me – with my comedy partner Glyn Doggett as our tech. We weren’t even a double act at this point; it was only through spending so much time together over that month that led us to deciding to work together in the first place. I also got together with my girlfriend soon after the London run, so it holds significance all round.
Revisiting the show after a long hiatus is strangely cathartic. I’ve been surprised at how much I remember of the script. It’s been lurking in the back of my mind all this time like a bad smell; I feel like I remember the vowels, but just need to fill in the consonants.
Kate has been replaced by Charley Durrant this time around, with Glyn directing. It like a small reunion. The question is, will we do it again a decade from now?
I’ll be in my mid-forties then. How depressing.
(Which I had a hand in writing, so they're actually my words after all.)
The show started life in 2004 at The Market Theatre in Hitchin, where it ran all Summer. We revisited it the following Spring for a four-week run at the Hen & Chickens (a pub theatre in Highbury & Islington), before finishing off with a weekend at the Wycombe Swan.
Saying that the show ran for four weeks in London is a bit of a white lie. It was supposed to run for a month, but we ended up cancelling most performances. It was the theatre company’s first – and last – venture onto the London Fringe and was a steep learning curve for us all. We’d booked a show for every night of the week bar Monday to ensure we’d be reviewed by the London press, without considering that a Victorian comedy melodrama wouldn’t exactly drag in punters.
There were only three of us in the cast – Catherine Stacey, Kate Kitson and me – with my comedy partner Glyn Doggett as our tech. We weren’t even a double act at this point; it was only through spending so much time together over that month that led us to deciding to work together in the first place. I also got together with my girlfriend soon after the London run, so it holds significance all round.
Revisiting the show after a long hiatus is strangely cathartic. I’ve been surprised at how much I remember of the script. It’s been lurking in the back of my mind all this time like a bad smell; I feel like I remember the vowels, but just need to fill in the consonants.
Kate has been replaced by Charley Durrant this time around, with Glyn directing. It like a small reunion. The question is, will we do it again a decade from now?
I’ll be in my mid-forties then. How depressing.
