All the fun of a rather dark fair at the Barn Theatre

Directed by Lou Wallace, the show runs from Friday, May 10 to Saturday, May 18. There's a matinee at 2.30pm on May 18, and evening performances at 8pm.  

Tickets for a night of captivating theatre cost £15 from the Barn Theatre box office on 01707 324300 or online at www.barntheatre.co.uk

The cast of The Massive Tragedy of Madame Bovary which can be seen at the Barn Theatre in Welwyn Garden City. (Image: The Barn Theatre)

Here's a look behind the scenes of the production.

At the Barn Theatre, rehearsals for The Massive Tragedy of Madame Bovary are coming to an end. 

Lorna Thompson and Danny Swanson — in a big hat — are on the floor, getting physical and, in the corner, Rob Wallace and George Curry are making music.

Josie Melton’s practising walking on a wooden leg, while Gavin Palmer quietly rehearses his accents. There’s talk of rats, as the Kama Sutra gingerbread men are handed round. This can only be a Lou Wallace production!

The Massive Tragedy of Madame Bovary is John Nicholson and Javier Marzan’s irreverent and bonkers adaptation of Gustave Flaubert’s original novel.

Madame Bovary was published in 1856, and prosecuted for obscenity, before being hailed (by some) as the greatest novel ever written. Its merits have been discussed ever since. Even in recent times, it’s been described as a study of neurosis — a rather old-fashioned Freudian take on it!

Poor Emma gets a much better press in this adaptation, where the tragic is intertwined with a high dose of comic. She’s bored.

To escape her boredom, she’s married the doctor – and he’s turned out to be boring. Bored with her boring provincial village and bored with her role as a dutiful wife in (boring) nineteenth-century France. She is reckless, lives beyond her means.  But girls just wanna have fun – right?

As in all her productions, director Lou Wallace’s thinking goes way beyond what’s on the page.

"I was drawn to the chaotic, ever spinning carousel that appears to be Emma’s world… like a nightmarish ride at the fair – that you can’t seem to escape from.

"We have played with the idea of the fairground, with props pinging out of cubby holes like a fairground game, a revolving door, stripes and coconuts and characters that appear increasingly ‘heightened’ and nightmarish – our reference points range from 'Allo 'Allo!​ to the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang – it’s all the fun of a rather dark fair accompanied by wine swilling musicians sitting at a pavement café."

Music and lighting are key to the success of her productions. Conjuring atmosphere and changing mood, they’re the other two characters on stage. Unusually for Wallace, she has a cast of only four, playing over 30 roles.

She said: "This re-telling relies on the swiftness of the multi-role and the skill of the actors charged to carry us from farm, to convent, to Yonville. I think it’s more fun with fewer actors – and such a challenge for the four of them."

The four performers are Lorna Thompson, Gavin Palmer, Josie Melton and Danny Swanson, four of the Barn’s finest actors. 

This is not traditional Barn fare and it’s unlikely that there will be another chance to see it in local theatre any time soon, if at all.

It's bold programming. So get down to the Barn sometime in the next week, when this hilarious and musical play turns Madame Bovary’s tragedy into something out of the ordinary.