there goes the bride by ray cooney &
john chapman


There Goes The Bride

  • Judy
  • Ursula
  • Timothy
  • Daphne
  • Gerald
  • Bill
  • Charles
  • Polly
  • Director
  • Stage Management Team
  • Lighting Design
  • Sound Design
  • Lighting & Sound
  • Continuity
  • Set Design
  • wardrobe
  • programme/Poster design
  • Clare Forshaw
  • Jenny Humphries
  • Jon Terry
  • Josie Hobbs
  • Roland Boorman
  • Dennis Picott
  • Alan Clifford
  • Andrea Lowe
  • Phil Armstrong
  • Ray & Debbie Cox
  • Gary English
  • Phil Armstrong
  • Clare penfold
  • Sharon Besant
  • Alan Lade
  • Deborah Lade, & Cast
  • Alan lade

 

There Goes The Bride

There Goes The Bride Photo Album
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There Goes The Bride Trailer
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SEAFORD SCENE Review by Andrea Hargreaves

In 1975, when Ray Cooney and John Chapman wrote There Goes the Bride, the bride's mum and dad were still expected to plan, stage and pay for the whole wedding shebang while their opposite numbers prepared to be impressed, or not, and the hapless couple didn't have much of a say in the proceedings.

As it starts, with only forgotten flowers and granddad's lost socks to worry about the bride's mother, played by the accomplished Jenny Humphries, was reasonably calm. That is until bride's father and harassed advertising executive Jon Terry banged his head and woke up in the middle of his new campaign, falling hook, line and fringing for his own creation, Andrea Lowe's 1920s' flapper girl.

Of course Terry is the only one to see or hear her. Are you with me so far? Good, because this farce gets sillier and sillier, its plot being as dated by today's mores as the idea of a parentally controlled wedding. So director Phil Armstrong had quite a bit to do to bring credibility to this scenario as friends and family try to lead Dad back to reality before the in-laws abandon the marriage.

So where's the bride in all this? Well, Clare Forshaw, in the custom of the time, had little to do being only required to look beautiful and turn up on time on the arm of her father, but she did a great job of making a nod to modernity by admitting she had slept with her fiance, then slowly disintegrating as Terry was kissed by Lowe only to become eupho-ric and incognisant of the real world and his daughter's wedding.

The success of this farce was in large part down to Terry who is a great comic actor with a happy way with timing, allowing the audience to laugh but not hanging on to his lines. However, he was admirably supported by the rest of the eight-strong cast I particularly enjoyed Josie Hobbs as the waspish bride's mother's mother and family matriarch, and felt that her cut-glass diction should have been matched at least by her daughter.

As her husband, Roland Boorman did a great job, displaying a ready gift for comedy and extracting helpless guffaws from the audience as he flashed neon-blue socks with his morning suit. Lowe, fortunately a very physical actor, had a hard character to play; for the most part being confined to using her body to wiggle and jiggle suggestively. Dennis Picott counter-balanced all the foolery as the hapless family friend dispatched to put tape over the flood of disasters and Alan Clifford was a fearful Australian father-in-law to be, with a bonzer accent.

Armstrong gave the cast their heads to interpret their characters and this risk paid off, due not only to their skill but to his tight stage direction. But no wonder the bride and groom eloped to the register office.