20: 2008 - SS "Farndale Avenue"

(NB: This photo was taken before the back painting had been completed)

Farndale plays are never really about building a proper set. The premise for all of them is that a local townswomen's guild stage their own production, which is invariably a bit on the rubbish side. Being true amateur's amateurs, the ladies tend to produce the most inappropriate and improvised scenery throughout.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it isn't as easy to do as it sounds. The plays themselves are chaotic affairs, but beneath the chaos the audience see, everything has to be slick, efficient and well-organised. So it is with the stage: things may have to look improvised, break in use or get completely in the way, but they all have to do it at exactly the right time and in the right way!

The "SS 'Farndale Avenue'" is actually one of the more coherent of the series and is based around having a proper stage layout - or two, to be more precise. Obviously, the bits built by the Farndale ladies can look as rough and ready as anything: however, the DJ's console, for example, is supposed to be real for the clash-of-bookings disco sequence at the beginning of the play. With the mirror ball going, disco lights on the console and music blaring, it did look exactly that, right up to the point where it blows up (a cup of tea and some pyroflashes giving that effect). Then the curtains open on the Farndale interpretation of a luxury liner - an upside-down dustbin for a funnel, some railings (part of which collapse), a carpet tube in a pot for a mast and a couple of flats nailed together at the corner...

...all of which had to be built sturdily enough to last! So, too, did the desert island for the second act, along with various other items that appear briefly - a cave, a large ship's prow and so on. Some of which looked rather better quality than might be expected of the townswomen's capabilities. The backdrop, for example, was done in no time at all, and painted very roughly with a very big brush. Despite that, a number of people commented on how good it looked! In the end we just had to assume that the Farndale ladies had a competent selection of husbands, sons and supporting crew who made fairly good props for them...