Terry Pratchett is not everyone’s cup of tea, but I liken those who can’t stand the Pratchett works to those strange people of my yesteryear who hated the Goon Show. They were ridiculous nonsense but one needed to be highly intelligent to enjoy them.
Pratchett has created a special fantasy world called the Discworld just to set his stories in and he’s populated it with a most unusual collection of characters.
While the cast was too huge to rattle off, Pamela Munt (turning up a few times in the production crew credits as well) ably led a coven of witches as the dour Granny Weatherwax.
The villains were a bunch of rather feminine Elves who were all quite nasty pieces of work. Elves to me have always been wonderful impish little scallywags but this lot have ruined that view forever.
Sean Venning was the Director, a difficult task to say the least with such a large cast. After all, to perform a Pratchett piece well, the entire cast must understand what it’s all about. He managed to hold it all together reasonably although he tended to let it drag a bit at times and failed to keep the myriad of scene breaks minimally interruptive. The blocking of the thing left a lot to be desired, as did the pace of the cast’s movement within the restricted area that the Bakehouse Theatre provides.
With that many people moving into and out of the small area with such restricted access, it must be very carefully blocked and rehearsed.
I had a good laugh though. Lords and Ladies is a sparklingly funny text and overall, it was relatively well delivered.
