Lend Me A Tenor

Rehearsals are well under way for the actors of Rickmansworth Players, as they practise their lines for the upcoming performance of ‘Lend Me a Tenor’ at Watford Pump House in May. The farce, set in 1934, revolves around the world famous tenor Tito Merelli as he is scheduled to sing in the lead in Otello at the Cleveland Grand Opera House. When he doesn’t arrive on time this leaves the General Manager with a huge problem to solve. There follows a stream of chaos, confusion, double entendres, scantily clad young females, mistaken identity and ensuing comic mayhem!

“The pressure for the actors is on, as there are many twists and plots to this farce. There is a chain reaction of mistaken identity, farcical plot twists, double entendres and innuendoes. It is very fast moving with constant entrances and exits through many doors,” said Louise Green, the director.

“The dialogue is quick-fire and the actors will have to be word perfect for the play to work. On top of this, the play is set in America and Tito and his wife are Italian, so the actors are having to get to grips with accents too; in order to achieve this they are working with a professional voice coach.”

Rickmansworth players is an award winning amateur dramatic group with 68 years experience of putting on plays and musicals. However, there is nothing amateur about the way the cast are preparing for this play. Rehearsals will be twice a week stepping up to three times a week several weeks before the show opens. Back stage crew are already busy designing the set; dress makers are taking measurements, cutting and stitching all the costumes and the box office is open to take bookings.