A surprise night out - Moonlight and Magnolias at Nottingham Playhouse

I had an unexpected night out last week. I knew Moonlight and Magnolias would be on at Nottingham Playhouse but I hadn't bought tickets because the end of February/beginning of March was a busy time with trips to Manchester and Norfolk. When I saw Notts TV running a competition for tickets I still entered though because, after all who ever wins competition?

Well, this time I did. Checking my email on Monday evening after my long weekend in Norfolk I was delighted to find I'd won two tickets -  and then a bit worried as I'd ignored my inbox since Friday. All was well though, so off we went to Nottingham last Thursday evening, and had a thoroughly enjoyable time.


Moonlight and Magnolias by Ron Hutchinson (directed here by Kirsty Patrick Ward) is set in 1939, in the fraught days as the filming of Gone With The Wind gets underway, then halts as producer David O Selznick fires screen writer and director, and coerces Ben Hecht and Victor Fleming into taking their places. The plan is they'll spend five days shut in Selznik's office, and come up with a new workable script ... or else!

With Selznick (Joe Alessi) mincing about the stage as Scarlett O'Hara, and new director Fleming (Oscar Pearce) giving his best as Melanie in the agonies of childbirth, while Hecht tries to turn their dramatics into a screenplay, and harassed assistant Miss Poppenghul (Hayley Doherty) keeps them supplied with peanuts and bananas, it's hilarious!
There's a serious side too. The pressure is on because no one other than Selznick actually believes Gone With The Wind will be a box-office success, but Selznick has a multitude of screenplays that haven't captured his idea of the book. Hecht believes Selznick should pay more attention to the world outside his movie studios; that Selznik doesn't acknowledge that Jews, even those as rich as movie producers, are still treated as second-class citizens in the US, and doesn't take the plight of European Jews seriously. 

You'll notice I didn't mention the actor playing Ben Hecht; for this special praise has to go to Felix Dunning. Normally he's deputy stage manager, but last Thursday he was asked to take over the role from Dan Fredenburgh who was ill. Thrown in at the deep end with no time to learn lines, he was brilliant. The script had to be hidden in a ring binder which looked like an appropriate prop for a screen writer, but otherwise, apart from a very few moments, Felix completely looked and acted the part; amazing after one day's rehearsal.