Image Credits: Images were created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos, or were direct from Pixabay. Screenshots were taken by me, Allison Symes, one of which has been used in the Feature Image.
It’s always a delight to go and see the latest production from The Chameleons but this one is a little different for me. It’s the first time I’ve gone to see a play based on a famous book but which remains one I haven’t read. I don’t know whether that means I went with a more open mind than I might have done if I had read the book (though I like to think I am fairly open minded anyway). I have often watched films based on books I’ve read (and most work well) but plays, no.
Anyway, having heard good things about Notes From A Small Island, I was keen to see the play, expecting plenty of laughter. I wasn’t disappointed.
Often The Chameleons have a ploughman’s supper (included in the ticket price) for their summer production. As ever, that went down well, as did the play. Ritchie Hall was arranged so the audience sat around tables facing the stage. I remain amazed at the range of productions The Chameleons do here. It is not the world’s biggest performance area.
Synopsis of the Play of Notes From A Small Island
While the book was written by Bill Bryson (it spent three years in The Sunday Times bestseller list, selling over two million copies), it was adapted for the stage by Tim Whitnall. The play was first produced at the Watermill Theatre in Newbury in 2023.
It’s 1973, and a young man from Des Moines, Iowa, has arrived on the ferry at Dover. He intends to conquer the whole of the island, like Caesar attempted before him. But Caesar didn’t have to deal with counterpanes, kippers, Cadbury’s Curly Wurlies, or Mrs Smegma the landlady’s eccentric house rules. As Bill travels the length and breadth of Britain, through villages with names like Titsey and Little Dribbling, something strange starts to happen. Can it be true? Is he really starting to feel at home?
Does sound fun, doesn’t it? Britain is a great country for odd place names. Sign of our eccentricity or our history or both, do you think?
Review
I’ve not seen this before at Ritchie Hall but above the stage was a big screen. Bill Bryson’s book is a travelogue so the screen was used to show us where Bill was in the UK as he narrated his adventures. It is another way to show setting. It worked well too.
Some of the places shown on the screen included Salisbury Cathedral (so worth visiting if you’ve never been and you can get straight to Salisbury thanks to the service from our local railway station, it’s a nice run too), Blenheim Palace, Edinburgh, Llandudno, and Stonehenge amongst others. Bill wasn’t overly impressed with the latter.
Oh and Milton Keynes and their famous concrete cows were commemorated in song too!
Bill in the play was played by Paul Jones, who had to stand in at the last moment. Paul read from the script as there was not enough time for him to learn the lines but strangely it seemed apt as Paul acted out and narrated Bill’s adventures.
There were twelve members of the company taking part in the play and all of them had multiple roles. The play takes us from Bill’s arrival in the UK at Dover in 1973 to roughly 22 years later where he retraces the steps he took on first coming here to find out what had changed and what had stayed the same.
The idea of the book and the play is to show us how Britain looks to us from the viewpoint of someone from the outside with no preconceptions. It’s an interesting concept. Could I see where Bill came from with his observations? Yes, most of the time, but there was also a sense we have always been like this or like that, simply because… That I think Bill had trouble coming to terms with but wouldn’t we feel the same way if we went to a place which had things, especially traditions, which seemed odd to us?
The play itself was funny and brought back many memories to those of us of a certain age. Tootie Fruities were mentioned and I would love to know where The Chameleons managed to find a packet of fizzy cola Spangles, which was used as a prop, because I haven’t seen those in years. (For the record, I loved them. The lemonade ones were pretty good too).
Music was used effectively as sound effects/mood influences. At the end, as our hero, wraps up his journey and looks at Britain from an outsider’s point of view, music from Ralph Vaughan Williams played. He is one of my favourite composers and they used what I think is his most accomplished piece – Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. You get a real sense of being taken back in time when you hear this so it was apt they used this. (Also I love the fact Vaughan Williams is highlighting another composer. Thomas Tallis was court musician in the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary 1, and Elizabeth 1. I think it fair to say Tallis was a survivor).
The cast were excellent and there were many laugh out loud moments. The play left me with the feeling I should read the book. I see that as a good sign!
The sets were kept simple. It’s amazing how a simple rearrangement of chairs can take you from being in a bed and breakfast establishment to being on a train. Oh and the screen came back into use to show still photos too, one of which was to show what happened to the original bed and breakfast place Bill went to on his arrival in the 1970s.
Oh and the landlady’s rules were strange! It wasn’t just Bill. One example was residents could use one toilet for one bodily function and the second WC for the other bodily function! That has never been normal…
Costume was used effectively too. One character came on wearing an anorak as Bill was just off the train. Didn’t need to say this character was obsessed with trains – it was all there in the costume. Mind you, when the character did speak, it only needed a few words to confirm that impression. Naturally a character like that didn’t stop at just a few words! Nobody was surprised…
The play (and the book it is based on) is also a trip through time. Many of us in the audience remembered the events being referred to which were milestones on Bill’s journey. Murdoch and Wapping, for example, brought back memories of that dispute, as did mention of the miner’s strike.
It became evident as the play (and the time frame for it) went on that Bill fell more in love with Britain. A definite Anglophile here!
And now to make sure I read the book…!
Next Production
The next show from The Chameleons is The Ghost Train by Arnold Ridley. Yes, the actor who played Godfrey in Dad’s Army. Aptly, the show will be on at Ritchie Hall over the days running up to and just beyond Halloween – 30th October to 1st November.
Conclusion
Congratulations to The Chameleons for staging another wonderful show. This play can’t have been easy to stage given, according to the programme, the book covers Bill Bryson’s journey of over 800 miles (with fifty locations) and Bill meets over 90 characters.
Bear in mind, the company has a cast of 12! Accents from around the country were represented too – Cockney, Oxford (posh, the very opposite of Cockney, incidentally I should know here because I was born within the sound of Bow Bells!), Geordie, Aberdonian, and Welsh. No wonder each actor here had to take on multiple roles and they had to put on different “voices”.
Well done, everyone. It was a splendid evening of entertainment.
Related Posts:-
Celebrating 60 Years of Drama with The Chameleons – A Look Back at the Open Evening
Read interviews with Chandler’s Ford writer Allison Symes: Part 1 and Part 2.
Read blog posts by Allison Symes published on Chandler’s Ford Today.
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Just belatedly re-read your comments on It’s a Small Island, and agree with all you say. They did it wonderfully. It even reminded us of our week in Wales back in the 60’s when we stayed at a guest house – the landlady told us that if we wanted a bath, we should give her two shillings and she would give us the tap -that happened too!.
Many thanks for your comments, Celia. Love the tap story! My, how times have changed.
It was an excellent production, full of humour and quirky characters! (Who would forget the trainspotter?). Well done, the Chameleons!