Bums on Seats

It seems a lifetime since the Long Suffering Husband and I went out together on a Saturday evening, without any children or friends where we talked about children.  Last night we went to see a local Drama group perform a play called Bums on Seats.  It was a last minute decision to support our local Arts.

AmDram productions always amuse me.  I love seeing characters from my own personal daily soap opera pretending to be someone else.

Bums on Seats is a gentle comedic farce about life in the theatre by Michael Snelgrove.  From the program I thought we were in for a real treat - a play with a majority female cast but it seems that this was just an adaptation for this particular group.  Far from being a 'riotous, satirical comedy', it was a dated script, probably written in the late 60s early 70s and published by Samuel French specifically for am-dram groups to pretend they were 'serious' actors.  There were one or two funny lines but it all felt as though it had been done before.

Despite the script there were some really good performances.  The young woman who my daughter used to know at school was wonderful.  She really made me believe she was devastated to be doing this job (I think that was part of the script!) The man playing a long-suffering husband was also very good.  I think he may have taken lessons on eye-rolling from Mr All-Trades.

At the end of the play the couple in front of us turned to their friend and said, "Well, what did you think?"  The reply was, "It's not really my thing but I'm sure it was very good."

We felt a bit like that too but it wouldn't stop us going to see the next things they do.