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"LA RONDE":
Our 2006 Autumn Production was an adaption by John Barton, of the
Arthur Schnitzler Play : "La Ronde".
The play was directed by Brian Jones and presented at The Playhouse,
Whitstable, 23 - 25 November, 2006 inclusive.
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The Play:
La Ronde is a comedy of sexual
relations, so it is hardly surprising that some productions have
taken a wink-giggle-nudge line on the play. We shall be more faithful
to Schnitzler’s witty and subtly observed vision of sexual
dishonesty and exploitation without losing the comic edge.
Schnitzler knew Freud, who credited him with having
come to similar conclusions to his own, and it is clear from several
of Schnitzler’s plays that he saw the sex drive as a major
- if not the major -motivator in human conduct, with the inevitable
predatory hypocritical behaviour that it drags in its wake.
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The play, originally entitled ‘Reigen’ (Round
Dance), has quite a notorious history. It was published privately in 1900
in Vienna, where the play is set. In 1903 a student production in Munich
was banned, and in 1904 the sale of the play was forbidden throughout
Germany. A production in Budapest was banned in 1921, when the theatre
was closed by the police after right wing disturbances.
The ban was finally lifted in 1922 following a court case in which a
theatre management, the director and the entire cast were acquitted of
charges of obscenity and causing a public nuisance. Objections and attempts
at litigation pursued the play into the second half of the twentieth century,
even after the 1950 film version by Max Ophus. It has subsequently been
performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company and on BBC television.
Schnitzler was pretty even-handed in his portrayal of men and women,
but feminist perceptions have tended to tip the balance in favour of the
women characters, and in any case this interpretation opens up more comic
possibilities.
With ten scenes, each in a different location, we have sought ways of
speeding up scene changes so that the action continues more or less seamlessly.
Fortunately, each member of the cast plays two scenes and then leaves
the action, which frees them up to help change the furniture around and
to be observers and commentators for the scenes that follow their own,
all the while still in character.
This oddly incongruous – almost surreal – device offers
further opportunities for comedy as the characters clash or form alliances.
A ‘Presenter’, who is outside the main play, and whose job
includes offering the audience an explanation of the setting of each scene,
keeps the characters in order
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Cast List and Stagecraft for: "La Ronde"
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Presenter: Danielle
Neligan |
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| Character |
Performed by |
Character |
Performed by |
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Soldier (Franz) |
Mark Smith |
Husband (Karl) |
Michael Ayris |
Prostitute (Leocadia) |
Louise Gibbins |
Sweet Girl (Ilse) |
Sally Parker |
Parlourmaid (Marie) |
Sam Terry |
Poet (Robert) |
Mike Rivarno |
Young Gentleman
(Alfred) |
Howard Thomas |
Actress (Jacquinetta) |
Sarah Gooch |
Young wife (Emma) |
Olivia Jubber |
Count (Count Steinemanger)
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Andreas Lowson |
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Stagecraft: |
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Stage Director |
Brian Jones |
Assistant Director |
Rita Jones |
Stage Manager |
Liz Findlay |
Assistant Stage Manager |
Geoff Morley |
Properties Assistant |
Ruth Cameron |
Stage Design & Construction |
Derek Standing |
Stage Construction |
Chris Graves |
Stage Artist |
David Mullett |
Costumes |
Susana Gerken |
Lighting Design |
Peter Ransome |
Lighting Operation |
Richard Burton |
Publicity |
Charlie Jubber / Geoffrey
Learner |
Photography |
Olivia Jubber |
Press Officer |
Geoffrey Learner |
Sound Effects & Music |
Tony Innes |
Prompt |
Lyn Wyness |
Grateful Thanks The Players would especially like to thank
Linda McCann for her most generous and extremely skillful
help in designing, producing and altering a large proportion of the lovely
costumes used in this production
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Biographies of stagecraft and the Players:
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Brian Jones
Performance Director, "La Ronde"
Ancient and more or less bald veteran of the amateur stage, Brian has
belonged to three other drama groups in his time. They all eventually
foundered leaving him cast up on the welcoming shores of the Canterbury
Players. He has not proved a very active member until the production of
La Ronde, where he finds himself an old sweat among the younger bloods
of the cast. |
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Rita Jones
Assistant Performance Director, "La
Ronde"
Rita has always wanted to be an actress. She was accepted for RADA, but
her father announced that “no daughter of his was going on the stage”,
so instead she has spent a large part of her life in am. drams. She played
major roles in Hamlet, Home Peer Gynt , Dark of the Moon, Madwoman of Chaillot,
Arms and the Man etc etc. She enjoyed helping to direct for the first time
in La Ronde.
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Liz Findlay
Actor: Play It Again Sam
Stage Manager (The Birthday
Party, La Ronde, The
Accrington Pals, Gosforth's
Fete, Play It Again Sam,
Fallen Angels, Blue
Remembered Hills.)
Liz joined the players in 2005 as prompt for Roleplay, rose to the position
of chief of teapot bearing and has been stage managing since then in Pinter's
"Birthday Party",
Ayckbourne's "Gosforth’s
Fete", Schnitzlers "La
Ronde", Whelan's "
The Accrington Pals" and Woody Allen's Play
It Again Sam in which she also took the part of Vanessa.
Liz is trained in Fine Art and has exhibited locally. She designed the
posters for Fallen Angels
and Blue Remembered Hills.
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Derek Standing
Set Design & Construction
Some 42 years ago, Derek responded to an urgent advert from Canterbury
Dramatic Society and although only 18 he got a job and even survived giving
the cast a nightmare on his first set because he did not know that one
has to add size glue to the powder paint.
Recent productions: RolePlay;
The Birthday Party; The
Accrington Pals; Play It
Again Sam; Fallen Angels |
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The Players, in order of appearance. |
More about Dee... |
Danielle (Dee) Neligan
Actor: La Ronde; Play
It Again Sam; The
Accrington Pals
Recently informed by her mother that she has been usurped in her role
as Drama Queen of the family, Danielle begs to differ. Starting out in
school nativity plays (though never cast as Mary), she moved on to a spot
of TV and drama at Uni. Initially drawn to her first role with Canterbury
Players, as the presenter in "La
Ronde" - because she dreamed of being a dominatrix with a whip
- she is now utterly content flowing around in a corset and a pretty dress.
April 2007 saw Dee acting the part of Eva Mason, in Peter Whelan's "The
Accrington Pals". |
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Mark Charles Smith
Actor: Gosforth's Fete;
La Ronde; Fallen
Angels; The Accrington
Pals (For Canterbury Players);
Seasons Greetings (For Chilham Players)
Sound Engineer for Blue Remembered
Hills.
Mark joined the RAF in 1974 and performed his first stage piece - in a
wind-blown tent in the Falkland Islands - in 1982. This was as one of
the "Three Degrees" song trio, miming to a recording
and dressed in a chiffon dress - a dangerous thing to do with several
hundred other airmen removed from their wives and girlfriends for some
months. He is now a director of the succesful online marketing company,
Internet Marketing Kent
Ltd.
Mark has appeared in end of year short films at universities in Canterbury
and Hastings and also as a film extra for various productions filmed in
Kent including "The Other Boleyn Girl" and "Wild Child".
Mark is looking for more extra work to get him out of the office once
in a while.
See his profile pages on Extras.co.uk
or Universal
Extras.
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Louise Gibbins
Actor: Play It Again Sam;
Gosforth’s Fete;
The Accrington Pals;
La Ronde
Louise joined the Players in 2006 & has been involved in 4 productions.
The first was Harold Pinter’s ‘The
Birthday Party’ where she was the official teapot bearer between
Acts II & III. Following the success of teapot placement, she was
cast as Councillor Mrs Pearce in Alan Ayckborne’s ‘Gosforth’s
Fete’. Louise proved herself to be a massive hit when Charlie
Jubber (Gosforth) omitted to catch her as she fell off the podium backwards.
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In Schnitzler's ‘La
Ronde’, she played a prostitute which was lucky as Louise was
concerned about being typecast! Louise also appeared in the production,
"The Accrington
Pals" by Peter Whelan. Here, she played Sarah, a hardworking
but fun loving mother in her late twenties.This is very far removed from
her own existence as a single, grumpy trainee mortgage advisor in Canterbury!!
Louise is seeking film extra work, her public profiles on casting websites
can be found HERE
and HERE.
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Sam Terry
Actor
Sam works for local government delivering drama and art workshops to community
groups in deprived areas around the Canterbury District. Sam is also a practising
artist and has exhibited in the Horsebridge Arts & Community Centre
in Whitstable. La Ronde was her
first stage play for several years. |
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HP Thomas
Actor
HP’s acting career has been short and uneventful. He enjoys cricket
& cycling but is keen to move into the brewing industry as a matter
of urgency. His ambition before settling down is to travel to Azerbaijan
and continue the good work of the Worldwide Adoption Agency. |
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Olivia Jubber
Publicity photographer, Actor
Aged 5, Olivia gave another child chickenpox in order to steal the role
of “The Rain” in “The Enormous Turnip”. From such
underhand success she caught the acting bug, and fourteen years later
finally sought treatment by taking a degree in Drama and Creative Writing
at Manchester Metropolitan University. There she played body parts, a
dead Eskimo, fairies, men and even occasionally a woman. At 28 she is
still plagued with dreams of winning an Oscar… for which we are
seeking therapy. |
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Mike Ayris
Actor: La Ronde; Play
It Again Sam;
Michael has been with the Canterbury Players for many years, first acting
in Sailor Beware at the old Marlowe. He went on to study theatre at the
Rose Bruford College and worked professionally for a time. His love of
acting keeps him in touch with the society and he is always open to new
challenges. |
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Sally Parker
Actor
Sally made her stage debut as Noddy in 1987, then went on to play Pattie,
Dr Scott, Olivia, Nancy, Julie-Ann and Queen Bertha with CDS/C Players.
She is a valuable cog in the wine trade, and is currently working towards
her WSET exams. She is a songwriter, plays the 12-string guitar &
the piano, & records demos in her inadequate studio. She likes playing
on the PS2, renovating furniture, and playing HW tennis (?). Sally is
passionate about buildings of historical interest and cross-stitch.
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Mike Rivarno
Actor
Mike has worked with the Players since early 2003 and has had a lot of
fun doing so. His roles include Alan Ayckbourne's "Roleplay"
in 2005 and Schnitzler's "La
Ronde" in 2006 followed by his part as CSM Rivers in Peter Whelan's
"The Accrington
Pals" (April 2007).
Initially appalled by the poet's ( La
Ronde, Whitstable Playhouse, 2006 ) dissimilarity to his own character,
his good friends Sally and Sarah soon dispelled his anxieties - especially
over all that kissing.
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| Mike is a constant source of amusement, forever telling jokes;
performing excellent impressions; quoting lines from his previous productions
and from books read and films and plays he has seen. |
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Andreas Lowson
Actor: La Ronde; Play
It Again Sam; Fallen Angels
Andreas is descending the ladder of nobility. In La Ronde, he was only
a count whereas the previous year he was a duke (Twelfth Night) and before
that a prince (Caucasian Chalk Circle). He has, however, deigned to play
mere commoners in such roles as a dotty priest (Gosforth’s Fete),
a burglar, an inspector (Disposing of the Body), a solicitor, a boss and
an eccentric puppeteer uncle and now, a husband, for Noel Coward's "Fallen
Angels". |
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"La Ronde"
Our 2006 Autumn Production was an adaption by John Barton, of the Arthur Schnitzler
Play : "La Ronde".
The play was directed by Brian Jones and presented at The Whitstable
Playhouse, 23, 24 & 25 November, 2006.
Players break boundaries.
Arthur Schnitzler's portrayal of a cycle of sexual
adventures has only in recent years been considered an acceptable
challenge in interpretation.
In the Canterbury Players' production, its 10
short scenes rolled along smoothly, for as each finished, its actors
adjusted the scenery before retiring to chairs at the back of the
stage and watching what followed, obeying a dominating but seductive
Presenter, played in a variety of costumes, by Danielle
Neligan.
The action, despite its common theme of liaisons, was composed
of widely differing situations and several stood out because of
the dramatic qualities of the players.
Foremost was Sally Parker as Ilse, the Sweet
Girl.
Olivia Jubber as the unfaithful Young Wife
was not only consistently funny in her dishonest dealings with both
lover and husband, but she brought out the potential of the actor
who played Alfred, the Young Gentleman (Howard
Thomas), who had been slightly wooden hitherto.
Michael Ayris, the Husband, was convincingly
both debauched and vulnerable; the Poet Mike Rivarno's
chief quality was his beautiful voice, while Andreas
Lowson, as Count Steinemanger, carried off his
rather formal approach to love with effectively cool restraint.
Sarah Gooch as the Actress was incongruously
religious. Other members of the cast were only slightly less convincing
in their roles and each had credible qualities: Louise Gibbins'
Prostitute's sullen resentment, Sam Terry's
Parlourmaid's resigned sadness, Mark Smith's
Soldier's callous but sexy disregard.
This was an adventurous undertaking and the Players once again
exhibited their exhilirating grasp of a challenge and professional
skills in realising its success. |
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| Arthur Schnitzler's
"La Ronde"
The Canterbury Players
Whitstable Playhouse
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Reviewed by:
Elaine Godden.
Kentish Gazette. |
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OUR MAIN SPONSOR FOR "LA RONDE" WAS DUKES KITCHEN.
DUKES KITCHEN: Dukes endeavour
to provide not merely a hog roast, but an experience. Catering for a couple of
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salad bar, drinks....
Large enough to cook 96 chicken portions, whole pigs and lambs, or huge beef joints,
yet designed to get through an ordinary garden gate, Dukes Kitchen can cater just
about anywhere you'd like them to.
More sponsors for La Ronde
See the sponsors page
for details on becoming a sponsor, supporter or patron.
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in London, are informal and presented through an enjoyable and relaxed mixture
of hands on learning, combined with a variety of practical exercises relevant
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Contact: 0845 226 5349
Digital Video Training have kindly handed their sponsor's tickets for "La
Ronde" back to the Players, for use by drama students and others who might
otherwise not have been able to attend.
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