With The Algarveans Experimental Theatre company due to open Lagoa Municipality’s HUMORFEST 2020 in just a few weeks’ time, here are 10 good reasons to go and see the Algarve’s favourite bunch of amateurs in … “A Bunch of Amateurs”:
1. The play is very funny. Fading Hollywood action hero, Jefferson Steel, arrives in England to play King Lear in Stratford only to find that it is not Shakespeare’s birthplace but a sleepy Suffolk village and the cast are mere amateurs. Steel’s ego clashes with the vanities and insecurities of the enthusiastic amateur thespians. Acting worlds collide, putting the ‘dram’ in am-dram.
2. The production features not any old bunch of amateurs but new and old members of The Algarveans, whom regular audiences will have observed going from strength to strength perfecting their performances and extending their repertoire.
3. If you like Shakespeare, you will enjoy the references to King Lear, the quotes and quips from the bard peppered throughout the dialogue.
4. If you don’t like Shakespeare, don’t worry; there isn’t too much declaiming but what there is might convince you to see more.
5. The play really is very funny. Written by the indomitable duo Ian Hislop (journalist, satirist, editor of Private Eye and most sued man in English legal history) and Nick Newman (satirical British cartoonist and comedy scriptwriter) be prepared to be ‘amused’.
6. Not everyone in “A Bunch of Amateurs” is an amateur. Director Paul Kloegman has enjoyed a career as screen and stage actor and director. He will ensure that the acerbic wit of Hislop and Newman metamorphoses into some hugely funny one-liners delivered with perfect comic timing by his cast.
7. Live theatre provides a great evening’s entertainment on a dull February night (performance dates are February 27, 28 and 29). And surely there’s a limit to how much karaoke one can stand?
8. The play will be performed at the 300-seat Carlos do Carmo Auditorium, Lagoa. Drinks are available from the bar from 7 pm.
9. Tickets are only €12 and are available at all Worten and Fnac stores as well as the Auditorium and Convento de S. José box offices, or online at www.ticketline.pt. For all enquiries, visit www.thealgarveans.com
10. And by the way, “A Bunch of Amateurs” is really very funny.
Article submitted by The Algarveans
