Scarlet Cloak | Productions

Production Notes

Summer Madness was an insane experiment - would it be possible to produce about an hours worth of theatre on a budget of pennies and within a time frame (from read-through/casting session to opening night) of two weeks?

Quite honestly it would not have been possible without an extremely dedicated and hard working cast who completely threw themselves into the spirit of the challenge. It helped that we chose to work with comic pieces which made rehearsals a lot of fun. It also had a reverse benefit in that the frenetic nature of the project leant a high adrenalin energy to the proceedings (never a bad thing in comedy).

The works chosen ranged from eighteenth-century Burlesque to Brecht. Yet despite being such disparate compositions in form, setting and era these plays shared a number of common traits -- a sense of the ridiculous; an insight into and commentary on human nature; a satirical self-awareness of theatre and, of course, a terrific sense of humour and fun.

In other words - total madness!