Aimee Wright as D’Artagnan in The 3 Musketeers – photo from Maddermarket media

 

The Norwich Players based at the atmospheric Maddermarket Theatre are one of the longest established amateur theatre groups in the country. They build on their traditions with a wide variety of work presented with confidence and elan.

Launched tonight is The 3 Musketeers by Daniel Winder, who is a director and writer working currently at the Iris Theatre in London, where this show was first performed in 2018. He has taken the original 1844 Dumas adventure, upped the swashbuckling content but added some decidedly contemporary nuances of language, gender role and repartee. A feature of the show is some outrageous doubling up by actors allowing their acting juices to fizz, froth and sometimes just spill out everywhere.

The tale is skilfully narrated by Miladay de Winter (Charlotte Pound) who turns out to be something of a villain and quite handy with the fighting cutlery. Overlooking the slight historical problem that musketeers were defined by their chosen weapons going bang a lot this play is full of sword fights – 13 of them in all – so the more nervous audience member worrying about a poke in the eye might do well to avoid the front three rows. To be fair there was no visible blood in this show tonight, although numerous characters met sticky ends due to all the flashing steel in action. Mme de Winter appears in various cunning disguises throughout the plot while carrying out dirty deeds on behalf of the evil Cardinal Richelieu (Jen Alexander) the Catholic church head working to try and divide the Queen (Rebeka Igneczi) from her King.

As the title suggests however the bulk of this story is about the musketeers, all four of them after they are joined by keen young Gascony garçon D’Artagnan, who is actually a jeune fille with a particular hobby in the sword fighting niche. D’Artagnan, the hero of the piece, is played with considerable skill and panache by Aimee Wright. The other musketeers are Porthos (Bradley Clarke), Aramis (Jose Tarouca, who also plays the ineffectual King) and Athos (Thomas Lloyd-Edwards, who also gives us a joyfully posh and mannered Lord Buckingham).

Other notable performers include Ian Shepherd as honourable musketeer boss Treville and Shem Jacobs as a delightfully camp manservant to anyone who cares to give him orders. David Newham is dignified as Lord de Winter, whose brother was slain shortly after marrying Milady de Winter. Every cast member in this play gives a great performance

Playwright Winder has tipped the Dumas classic across genres to create a slapstick farce with never a dull moment and no pun left unturned. This cast has taken up the challenge with a generally well timed and fast paced work with loads of lively action, in spite of the constraints on swordplay enforced by the tiny Maddermarket stage. Director Claire Stretton would be right to feel very proud of her achievement with this production. It takes the most masculine of historical yarns and fills it with powerful and dangerous women who generally take the upper hand. Above all, it works and is great fun if you want to dodge into somewhere dark on this week of hot evenings and sultry nights. Get yourself a nice icy drink from the splendid Maddermarket bar and settle back in your seat for the swashbucklingest night in Norwich!

© Julian Swainson, Norwich Eye, Tuesday 12th July 2022

The 3 Musketeers plays at the Maddermarket Theatre until 16th July, for times and booking go to: https://maddermarket.co.uk/event/the-three-musketeers/