They Came From Mars…
★★★☆☆ Enjoyable
Inverleith St Serf’s Church Centre: Thurs 29 – Sat 31 May 2025
Review by Hugh Simpson
They Came From Mars and Landed Outside the Farndale Avenue Church Hall In Time for the Townswomen’s Guild’s Coffee Morning, performed by the St Serf’s Players at Inverleith St Serf’s, is a ludicrous and charming piece, even if it does not always completely come off.
This is one of a series of plays by David McGillivray and Walter Zerlin Jr featuring the Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society, which each consist of a ‘play within a play’. The Guild are a thoroughly inept troupe, whose attempts at staging various well-known plays and genres are sabotaged by their infighting, inability to stay in character, and their tendency to read out the stage directions.
Rona Arnott, Gillian Scott, Lindsay Corr and Glen Sutherland. Pic: Trevor Garlick.
It’s an amusing enough conceit, but its slight nature is betrayed by the way that (unlike The Play That Goes Wrong and its successors) it lacks the necessary endless stream of gags to sustain itself. As a result, it does tend to pall after a while.
The plays have not dated that gracefully. This one, furthermore, suffers from the fact that, while based around an ‘invaders from Mars’ theme, it doesn’t have as much fun with the tropes of SF as it might.
Director Duncan Robertson and the cast do go at it with the maximum of gusto, and much of it is genuinely very funny. Rona Arnott plays society head Mrs Reece, who in turn plays Professor Einstein (when she’s not showing off her photographs, or announcing the flower-arranging competition). As well as a fine rapport with the audience, Arnott showcases the character’s steelier side skilfully.
beautifully portrayed
Lindsay Corr’s Norah treads the line between staying in and out of character (as a cleaner and a robot) very well indeed, and her acting as someone unwitting floored by Valium is extremely good.
Glen Sutherland’s Gordon (who plays Rev Allsopp) has a very pleasing false laugh, and Gordon’s complete lack of understanding of stagecraft is beautifully portrayed.
Lindsay Corr and Glen Sutherland. Pic: Trevor Garlick.
Gillian Scott plays Thelma, the diva who is constantly refusing to co-operate in her dual roles as the Reverend’s son and daughter. However, she is forced to play a love scene by herself (the actor playing her love interest is, of course, offstage with an upset stomach. This, like everything else, is done with real comic energy.
Camden Moroney-Smith is Felicity, the put-upon stage manager who is responsible for the first act’s guddle of furniture, as well as playing Mrs Allsopp and the Martian invader. This, once again, is all done with comic nous and considerable presence.
There is plenty of fun to be had with recalcitrant props, missed cues and technical mishaps; the lighting of Keith Grady and Jack Paterson’s sound are particularly good at knowing just how wrong to go.
a touch more zip
There are certainly things that could be done better. The second half, despite some good set pieces, does drag. This is largely the fault of the original play, but it needs to be done with just a touch more zip. When the whole thing is supposed to be an exercise in coarse acting, there isn’t really such a thing as too big.
A play that depends on actors missing lines needs – ironically enough – to be word perfect, and delivered at speed. A sequence where the same lines are repeated, becoming progressively more mangled, would be even funnier with a touch more pace.
The commitment to the play’s sheer ridiculousness is admirable throughout, however, and the end result is undoubtedly enjoyable.
Running time: One hour and 50 minutes (including one interval)
Inverleith St Serf’s Church Centre, 1a Clark Rd, EH5 3BD
Thursday 29 – Saturday 31 May 2025
Evenings at 7.30 pm
Tickets and details: Book here.
St Serf’s Players
Website: stserfsplayers.org.uk
Facebook: @stserfsplayers
Instagram: @stserfsplayers
Camden Moroney-Smith, Gillian Scott and Rona Arnott. Pic: Trevor Garlick
ENDS
