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Entertaining farce brings chaos to the stage at Pitlochry

Chaos reigns in Thark at Pitlochry Festival Theatre.
Chaos reigns in Thark at Pitlochry Festival Theatre.

Ben Travers’ Thark has now been added to the Pitlochry Festival Theatre summer repertoire – a total contrast to the spectacular Carousel.

This reworking by farce aficionado Clive Francis also displays the talents of the backstage crew as this very silly, but hugely entertaining, piece reaches it’s chaotic conclusion.

Director Ken Alexander has his charges romping through the evolving chaos at alarming speed.

The full cast of ten is also in Carousel and you would never know that.

Anna McGarahan as the bemused, bothered and bewildered maid and George Arvidson as the upper-class twit Lionel also play leads Julie and bad boy Billy in the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic. Thursday and Saturday matinee days when both productions are on stage will be a test of fitness, not to mention memory.

Nigel Hook’s magnificent settings go from a 1927 library in a Mayfair flat to the eerie Thark, and gives no hint of the destruction that is to come.

Sir Hector Benbow sells Thark on behalf of his ward, Kitty, to the nouveau riche Mrs Frush, who is not happy about her purchase. She has arranged a dinner date with Benbow, who has a conflicting evening arranged with a young lady. Unfortunately, further complications arise with Lady Benbow’s impending early return from wherever.

So follows the traditional farce elements – mistaken identities and all sorts of shenanigans.

Mark Elstob is the Lothario Sir Hector, full of panache and panic, with excellent support from the aforementioned maid and Greg Powrie as the stiff-legged butler.