By Heidi Trautmann

When we lean back in our rocking chair and remember the good old times while listening to the tunes of beloved musicals, a smile softens our face and we close our eyes.

Ahhh, just like the other evening at the Cultural Centre of the Girne Municipality with the RBL Theatre Players and their director Mark Lake, living up to the earlier success with Theatre Lambousa, then with the art director Francine Ash who with a lot of passion initiated the concept of song events… and later dance, the idea of musicals.

On three evenings the newly established theatre group brought again smiles on our faces with five musical sketches such as ‘Mame’, ‘Mack and Mabel’, ‘La Cage aux Folles’, ‘Jerry’s Girls’ and ‘Hello Dolly!’

The theatre in red on the first floor of the Cultural Centre is a little treasure box, although there is not a lot of backstage space for the company, I heard.  The stage was nicely decorated, lighting and sound were fine, and what a perfect idea to start each sketch with a film trailer on a big screen, which was then pulled up to open the stage fully for the company to step forward. In front of the stage the musical director Jacquie Faulkner and her assistant Annie Mockridge and Stuart Janes, I took their photo because they were truly good. The choreography for the company and also the dance numbers was well done. There were 13 female and 8 male singers all in elegant evening robes, very nice to look at,  and my compliments to the ‘costume maker’ Soo Birchall.

The Company: Emma Bailey, Jenny Vardy, Jane Griffith, Jilly Regan, Karen Aldred, Adele Thomas, Jan Parkinson, Jan Marsh, Anne Lloyd, Sue Cowley, Rebecca Simmons, Denise Bailey, Linda Burton….and Roger Bradley, Ken Simpson, Ged Jackson, Peter Wills, Des Roberts, Brian Coe, Ian Chennell, Mark Lake.

I admire the passion they all showed, you can feel that the company as well as the technical staff have put all their heart into the production and for this alone they deserve our compliments and a big thank you. The choir was very good, and some solo voices were very remarkable, especially young Rebecca Simmons with a strong voice and a comic talent; she got thunderous applause and bravos from the house.  Two dance sketches were remarkable and surprising, the one with Mark Lake, Karen Aldred and Jilly Regan in ‘tapping your troubles away’, you really don’t realize what talents are slumbering in our midst, tapping and singing in true cabaret costumes and tapping shoes. The other sketch was with Karen Aldred and Jilly Regan again and …with Jan Marsh, the multi-talent; in performances at the Lambousa I have admired her as director, as choreographer and dancer and as comic talent, she absolutely knows how to use body language, how to enter and how to leave the stage, and her facial expressions tell stories. 

A very nice evening and I am sure that on the other two evenings the RBL Theatre Players had again roaring applause.