I think it’s no
accident that the Farndale Ladies, who can’t seem to perform the simplest
task without falling over or breaking something, were created in Great
Britain, possibly the only country in the world which discourages personal
achievement as vulgar and has made cult out of the heroic failure. Coarse
acting, bad movies, and botched out-takes had a loyal following in the
British Isles long before the rest of the world recognized their entertainment
value, and when Walter Zerlin Jnr. and I decided to make our mark on the
Edingburgh Festival in 1975, it was perhaps inevitable that our production
of Macbeth, in which the set was accidentally erected back-to-front and
an incapacitated witch was pushed round the cauldron in a wheelchair, was
an award-winning sell-out, later touring the country to similar acclaim
for the next year.
Such was the impact of the
Farndale Ladies that they had to make comeback after comeback, appearing
in everything from a French farce to a science-fiction adventure. Earlier
this year the ladies’ most ambitious production to date, The Mikado, complete
with full chorus and orchestra, completed a sold-out run in St. Albans,
north of London, and in 1992 Peter Pan will the 11th play to be desecrated
by Farndale Avenue ineptitude.
Since the Farndale Avenue
plays were first published ten years ago, they’ve proved surprisingly popular
all over the world. It seems that, although the Townswomen’s Guild, a group
of mainly middle-class housewives who meet to learn skills and raise funds
for charity, is uniquely British, there are equivalents, such as Countrywomen’s
Associations and Leagues of Women, in many other countries. With only minor
adaptations made to the scripts, audiences are now taking that age-old,
vicarious pleasure in misfortune throughout Europe and as far afield as
Saudi Arabia, Zambia, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. 1991 saw
the one thousandth production of a Farndale Avenue play.
The U.S.A., however, is in
virgin territory for the Farndale Ladies. None of their plays has been
seen here until now. I wonder how the ladies’ hopelessly incompetence will
be received here in Los Angeles, which taught the world the importance
of Goals and Targets in our lives, and where even if a modestly-talented
group of community players were to produce a play with an all-female cast,
it would probably cost more than the average West End farce and look as
though it had be staged by the director of the Oscarcast.
You may think that no actors
could possibly be as unmitigatedly awful as the Farndale Ladies. Perhaps
they couldn’t. But if they did exist, they’d come from Britain.
— David McGillivray
The Farndale Ladies — Their
Oeuvre
1976, The Farndale Avenue Housing
Estate Townswomens’ Guild Dramatic Society’s Production of Macbeth
1978, The Farndale Follies
1980, The Farndale Avenue
Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society Murder Mystery
1982, Chase Me Up Farndale
Avenue, Si’l Vous Plait
1984, The Haunted Through
Lounge and Recessed Dining Nook at Farndale Castle
1986, The Farndale Avenue
Housing Estate Townswomens’ Guild Dramatic Society Murder Mystery (Revised)
1987, They Came From Mars
and Landed Outside the Farndale Avenue Church Hall in Time for the Townswomen’s
Guild’s Coffee Morning
1988, The Farndale Avenue
Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society’s Production of A Christmas
Carol
1990, We Found Love and an
Exquisite Set of Porcelain Figurines aboard the S.S. Farndale Avenue
1991, The Farndale Avenue
Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Operatic Society’s Production of The
Mikado
