Wiltshire Times
Love triangle at Civic Hall
THREE-SIDED: Arthur (Clive James), Lancelot (Ty Butler) and Guinevere (Mari Hutchins)
in Trowbridge Operatic Society's production of Camelot, at Trowbridge Civic Hall until Saturday.
CAMELOT was the first Trowbridge Amateur Operatic Society production I had seen, and the company lived up to everything I had heard about them.
The musical is set in the realm of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table the costumes and set design were fantastic.
The story begins with a woman telling her young grandson the story of Camelot and the love triangle between Arthur, Guenevere and Lancelot.
First nights are always fraught with difficulties as everyone gets used to giving a performance, rather than a rehearsal, and the pace of the first act was painfully slow in places, but the atmosphere and some of the performances made up for that.
The acting by lead characters was brilliant, notably Clive James as Arthur and Mari Hutchins as Guenevere. But John Price as Merlin, Bob Knowles as Pellinore and Caroline Brightman as Morgan Le Fey stole the show.
The jousting scenes worked really well despite an obvious lack of horses and gore. There were far too few of these set pieces, but the second act had a better pace, and
a rendition of Fie on Goodness by the Knights and male ensemble was excellent.
It is a shame Camelot has such a dismal score, for despite the great acting, there was a serious lack of show-stopping numbers for them to sing. Hard to believe it is written by Lerner and Loewe, the team behind My Fair Lady.
The staging, however, was spectacular, and there were moments of brilliance from what is clearly an excellent ensemble. I will certainly look out for their next production.
Holly Robinson