Blind Eye Productions’ A Bunch of Amateurs by Ian Hislop and Nick Newman, presented at the Duchess Theatre in Long Eaton (28 May)
Directed by Lindsey Hemingway
Assistant Director JJ McCormack
From the moment audience members step into the building, they are greeted with the kind of warm and genuinely friendly welcome from the front-of-house team that immediately sets the tone for an evening of local theatre done well.
The play follows Jefferson Steele, a typically arrogant Hollywood actor whose career is on the slide, arriving in England to play King Lear in what he assumes is Stratford-upon-Avon. In reality, he’s been brought in by a struggling amateur dramatic society in Stratford St John, who hope that attaching a “Hollywood name” to their production will help save their theatre from developers. Steele arrives expecting prestige and a role with the RSC and instead finds a company already deep into rehearsals, with their own established dynamics and very little interest in indulging his ego.
He initially struggles to fit in, clashing with both the process and the people around him, and realising very quickly that this is not the career move he thought it was. However, leaving isn’t as straightforward as he’d like. Locked into the job by his agent, he’s forced to stay and see the production through. What begins as a reluctant obligation gradually shifts into something more invested as the production moves towards its final performance.
This production embraces both the humour and the generosity of the piece, anchored by a genuinely cohesive cast. There is a sense of a group working together rather than competing for moments, and that shared rhythm becomes one of the evening’s real strengths. Beth Duffy’s Dorothy sits at the heart of this, offering a performance full of warmth, subtle authority, and emotional intelligence; she provides the steady centre around which everything else can orbit. Around her, Alex Sjoberg-Weekes brings an engaging openness to the sponsor’s wife Lauren, who ends up embroiled in a scandal, and Kay Thomason’s Jessica captures both the determination and vulnerability of a daughter caught between love and obligation – mirroring the dynamic between Cordelia and Lear. Danielle Rodgers (Mary), Saurav Modak (Nigel) and Paul Duffy (Dennis) each create clearly defined, believable characters, contributing to a world that feels lived-in rather than sketched.
There’s also a playful theatricality running through the production, perhaps most clearly embodied in the stage managers (Ashleigh Wilkinson, Evie Lucas and Gabriella Tilley) whose jazzy, singing Shakespearean chorus adds a knowing, meta-theatrical layer that fits neatly with the play’s structure. It’s a reminder that A Bunch of Amateurs is as much about theatre itself as it is about the people making it.
At the centre of it all, however, Jonathan Greeves takes on the considerable challenge of Jefferson Steele, a role that demands both comic precision and sustained presence. He carries the heavy lifting of the evening with confidence, maintaining the character’s bravado while allowing glimpses of vulnerability to emerge, and doing so with a consistent accent that never slips into caricature. It’s a strong, controlled performance that understands the balance the role requires.
One of the most satisfying sections of the piece comes when the Stratford Players are actually shown performing sections of King Lear in a montage. There is a genuine shift here, not just in tone but in investment, and the company rises to it impressively, meaning that the emotional climax, although a touch predictable, lands beautifully because we have believed in these serious Shakespeare moments. The sequence doesn’t feel like a parody; instead, it offers a glimpse of what amateur theatre can be at its best. It’s striking enough to leave us with the thought that Blind Eye Productions could, and possibly should, take on Lear in its own right and find an audience ready for it.
The play itself is perhaps best appreciated by an audience with some familiarity with King Lear, as not all of the references and parallels fully land without that context. When they do, they add a rewarding layer to the comedy; when they don’t, there’s a slight sense of something just out of reach. The production builds some very strong audience energy, particularly in its comic exchanges, although (a particular bugbear of mine) the frequent blackouts occasionally soften that momentum, creating brief dips just as the rhythm is gathering. In a piece so invested in the mechanics of theatre – complete with a trio of meta characters who are literal onstage stage managers, and which is centred on a play-within-a-play – it feels like keeping transitions visible might have sustained that energy and folded the set changes into the storytelling itself.
What ultimately resonates, however, is the evident care and commitment behind the work. This is a company that understands the spirit of the play and meets it with sincerity, producing something that feels both entertaining and quietly celebratory. A Bunch of Amateurs is, at heart, a love letter to the messy, frustrating, joyful reality of amateur theatre; and Blind Eye Productions respond in kind, capturing not just the comedy of it, but its value.
Photo credit: Gavin Mawditt #giftofthegav
