Literary Cabaret to Reprise ‘Noel Coward’
By Meredith Beaumont, March 23, 2007

The Literary Cabaret Fri, Mar 30 & Sat, Mar 31, 8pm La Cava de la Princesa Recreo 3 50 pesos

By popular request, The Literary Cabaret repeats their Noel Coward show, “A Talent to Amuse” (which ran during Christmas week) at the end of March. Songs, skits and poetry from every era of Coward’s career are featured.

The Literary Cabaret (two of whose members have just returned from South America) have travelled the world, performing gems of English literature in an atmosphere of mirth and merriment.

The all-British trio formed here in San Miguel 15 years ago, pooled their talents and came up with this unconventional form of entertainment. Rick Davey is the musician of the group and his bio reveals ten years of participation in rock, folk and R&B bands. These days he plays acoustic guitar and ukulele. The “uke” was recently commandeered by an airline official when Davey tried to board a plane to England, even though he promised not to play it! His acting career began in 1989 when he was cast as an American army officer in the British farce, “See How They Run,” with his hair tucked and pinned into a short-back-and-sides wig. Archival photos show him looking somewhat like a ventriloquist’s dummy.

Marilyn Bullivant has combined a career of art and acting for as long as she can remember, each activity surfacing for months at a time only to be deposed by the other. She says that when she’s painting in a tatty old sarong, she thinks of the distant future and camaraderie out in the wide world rehearsing a play or a show; and that when she is driven to distraction with the pressure of a theatrical opening, she thinks of happy days puttering in her garden, garnering inspiration for her next painting. She has starred in numerous plays, both here and in Canada, including: Lady Teazel in School for Scandal, Countess Olivia in Twelfth Night, Kath in Entertaining Mr. Sloane, and Lady Cynthia in The Real Inspector Hound.

Reesha Browning was also an artist until gardening usurped her creativity in rural Canada. Prior to this, she had a spell as a school teacher which was cut short when she realized that teaching art to adolescents was rather like trying to tame a herd of wild buffalo. When she came to San Miguel and met Marilyn and Rick, they immediately recognized her remarkable acting skills and vast knowledge of poetry and literature and dragged her, protesting, into the troupe. Since then she has graced the boards here in many interesting productions—such as Dracula, Mata Hari, and the musical Brecht on Brecht.

Noel Coward, whose humour and sensibility coincides directly with The Literary Cabaret, provides the perfect vehicle for that tongue-in-cheek approach, so often associated with their performance. Expect unknown verses to songs he sings, stuff that’s never been performed before, and pieces that were banned by censors at the time they were written. Altogether, expect a show that is both light and enlightening, off-the-wall, ingenious, and thoroughly entertaining!.