Natasha Mckim checks up on the rehearsals for Spamalot, a musical where health and safety cancels witch burnings.
Get ready for an evening of laughs in a musical spoof version of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
King Arthur gallops on to stage in the tale of Spamalot, where the story of Camelot and the Knights of the Round Table is told a little bit differently.
“Fans of Monty Python will recognise about 70-80% of the material and the songs have been added for this musical,” said director Stuart Mearns.
“It’s just an absolute hoot and the funniest show I have ever directed. I did Avenue Q and thought we couldn’t do funnier.
“Not a night goes by in rehearsals without laughter and we are still finding it funny six months in.”
As well as being the director for Spamalot, Stuart is the founder of the company Harlequin Productions, which is made up of a mainly Aberdonian cast. The amateur production has been rehearsed around the full-time jobs, education and lives of the local cast, who have been working on the play since last September.
Stuart wants to bring new and challenging shows to Aberdeen with Harlequin Productions and the last four shows the company have performed sold out in their previous home of the Arts Centre Theatre, Aberdeen.
This year, the 27-strong cast are taking an exciting step on to a new and bigger stage at the Tivoli for their eighth show. “We are changing location because of the size and scale of this show. A couple of the cast have been at the Tivoli for the panto, but for most of us it is completely new. The size of the stage is daunting but it is a beautiful theatre,” said Stuart.
“The lighting and sound are new to us but we have a good stage manager and have taken on a lighting and sound engineer.
“Part of putting on a show is the challenge.”
Stuart first saw Spamalot in London and thought the show was “hilarious with good comedy musical numbers”. Audience members will recognise the tune Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, but the majority of the songs are original to the musical, including some “hilarious, cheesy numbers”.
“It is a good night out of fun, filled with humour and slapstick,” said Stuart.
The production has spent a lot of their budget on the costumes to make sure the show is done as well as possible and to get “the right feel”.
The cast have been taught sword play and one of the actors has up to nine costume changes.
Stuart said: “We counted 141 costumes, more than any show I have ever directed – it is a monster of a show.
“We have confidence in the show,” said Stuart, who played a chimney sweep in his first stage role as a child.
Stuart jokes that he and his friend had competed over the role of the doctor before being allocated their parts, but several years later his music teacher approached him to play an adult chimney sweep.
If Stuart had been given the desired role of the doctor, he wouldn’t have caught the theatre bug. “I haven’t looked back since,” he said.
“Spamalot is fun. It’s a good night of entertainment and is hilarious. It is nice to escape from the doom and gloom sometimes.”
Spamalot is on from March 8 to March 11, at the Tivoli Theatre in Aberdeen. See www.aberdeenperformingarts.com/ events/spamalot
