Director Wendy Merk admits that Langham Court Theatre’s A Chorus of Disapproval has provided many unique challenges for the amateur theatre company, not the least of which is figuring out how to define the play.
“This play is kind of what you’d call a semi-musical,” says Merk. “It’s mostly a comedy. There are musical numbers interspersed. They’re quite short and they’re all taken from The Beggar’s Opera, a very old play from 1728.”
That’s not to say audience members should expect to see a traditional opera. Merk says the storyline of The Beggar’s Opera is, in some way, reflected in A Chorus of Disapproval.
“We’ve chosen to set it in 1978,” she says. “It is a British play. It takes place somewhere in the north of England. It’s rather vague as to where it is. It’s a fairly small town and it’s an amateur theatre group but they get into all kinds of stuff behind the scenes so there’s love affairs and nefarious business dealings going on and that kind of thing. So, in a way, that’s reflected in the plotline of The Beggar’s Opera.”
Merk has her reasons for setting A Chorus of Disapproval in the ’70s. She doesn’t want to say too much, but she says there’s a scene where two characters are “engaging in an activity that was very typical of the 1970s.”
“I don’t want to give it away because it’s a big part of the comedy in the play,” she says. “But I thought this would be really fun. The play was actually written around 1985 so it’s not that different. Also, some of the clothing in 1978 was so outrageous and the colours were so gaudy—especially the men. Men were much more colourful in the ’70s than they are nowadays; I mean, we all were, sort of. So it’s a fun look for the costumers.”
As it turns out, outfitting a cast of 17 amateur actors in garb from both 1978 and 1728 is no easy task.
“It’s a huge job for the costumer, Pearl Arden, and she’s done an amazing job,” says Merk. “She does have people helping her but she’s done the main part of it. It’s a lot of costumes and wigs to keep track of… and shoes and boots.”
The costumes are just the tip of the iceberg. A Chorus of Disapproval is a play inside a play, which means multiple sets, a challenge Merk chose to tackle by incorporating the transitions into the play instead of leaving the audience in the dark.
“I decided I didn’t want to have blackouts because there are quite a few set changes and there are these little snippets of songs that are interspersed between scenes, where one character is standing at one end of the stage and just singing the song, and the song kind of reflects what’s going on in the scene, but I didn’t want to have a blackout every time that occurred,” she says. “We’re using what we call periactoids—three flats on one unit you can revolve and change the set. You can roll them up and down. So they are being used to give the impression of, ‘Oh, this is a different scene. This is a cafe, or this is a pub, or The Beggar’s Opera set.’”
Despite its challenges, Merk says that she is excited about the production.
“It’s a very well written play,” she says. “It’s very funny and there’s a lot of depth to all the characters, which is really nice. They’re not just superficial, slapstick characters.”
A Chorus of Disapproval
Various times, until Saturday, June 23
$17 student tickets, Langham Court Theatre
langhamtheatre.ca