30 December 2023 , 15:33
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An “adult pantomime” featuring characters named Connie Lingus and Chlamydia Palmer has been cancelled following its opening night after the theatre received an “unprecedented” number of complaints.
The risqué show, which opens with a character singing, “a count, count, a country girl, living in my little world,” was also plagued with technical issues. The amateur production, titled Bewdley and The Beast 3 and put on by the Bewdley Town Criers, was supposed to run for three nights at the Civic Centre in Stourport. The venue pulled the plug after just one performance, however following a slew of complaints and demands for refunds from the public - a move the drama group called “grossly unfair”.
The show, billed as “a panto for grown-ups”, had its first and last performance on December 28 starring a cast of amateur actors. The panto, which was raising money for charity, was also beset by technical issues, audience members complained. Bosses of The Civic made the rare decision to cancel the rest of the run, to the fury of the Town Criers, Birmingham Live reports.
Stuart Hollis, who was in the audience, said of the show: "Sad but the right decision, we left at the interval. It was the most unprofessional thing we have ever seen but accept it was nothing to do with The Civic."
Bewdley Town Criers, responsible for the show, said the panto had been "too adult" for audiences and moaned that they had not used the "F and C swear words" but the script had "feck" and "count" in it. The theatre company did admit that the first show had suffered technical issues such as sound problems and started late due to not enough seats being put out.
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Bewdley Town Criers issued a statement yesterday that said: "The decision was made today by the Civic Stourport not to allow our production to complete its final two performances. After receiving several emails of complaint, and reacting to social media posts, the Chair of the Trustees made the decision to cancel, who then notified us by email.
"Thursday nights show experienced several technical issues relating to the sound, which we agree, affected the enjoyment of the production. The show was also late starting, due to not enough seats being put out. We apologise to everyone for issues that affected the smooth running of this show.
Bewdley and The Beast 3 adult panto and its dame Mrs Chlamydia Palmer were cancelled at Stourport's The Civic (The Civic)"The sound issues were identified after the production and resolved overnight, ready for today's final shows. Other factors have also been mentioned as a reason for cancellation, such as 'crude and unacceptable content'. It has been suggested that we frequently used the 'C' and 'F' word for cheap laughs. This is untrue.
"If you have seen our previous productions, you will know the nature of our scripts as being risqué, but never too vulgar, and very rarely, profanity.
"The panto opens with a girl singing a song which goes ' A count, count a country girl, living in my little world'. And, we have never used the 'F' word. Last night the word we clearly used was 'feck'. This is all evidenced in our scripts. The only time the 'F' word was used, was by the audience, singing along to 'Living Next Door to Alice' and not the cast."
"Our opening monologue, off stage, also alludes to self deprecation - acknowledging that it doesn't always go to plan, which is part of the nature of this style of panto. We even introduce our lovely prompt on stage and make fun of the fact that we don't need her, but we clearly do! Our amateur cast and crew range from 19 to 60 years old, and do it for the love of it. We have a chosen charity which we support, and set up a Just Giving page with a target, which we try and hit. All donations given through Just Giving go directly to the charity.
"We feel it was grossly unfair that our show was pulled by the venue with no conversation, no phone calls or meetings to give us the opportunity to address any concerns. After months of planning, rehearsals and at a cost, we find ourselves regrettably in this position.
"Once again I apologise for the issues that affected Thursday's smooth running of the show. We take encouragement from the tremendous amount of positive comments and handshakes from the audience as they left the civic building, including the Mayor and Consort.
There was a delay while more chairs were set out (The Civic)"Onwards and upwards, and maybe we will stage this much talked about and apparently 'too adult' adult panto elsewhere in the near future!" Stourport's The Civic said: "The Civic has taken the unusual and extraordinary step to cancel the remaining performances of Freddie Just presents "Bewdley and The Beast 3".
"This is due to the unprecedented number of complaints and requests for refunds that we have received in the last 12 hours. We will be responding to each complaint individually, but its going to take a while.
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"We will be issuing full refunds to all ticket holders including those from last night's performance. These refunds will be administered by our online ticket provider Ticketsource over the coming days. The Civic are sorry for any inconvenience and upset this has caused."