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Live Theatre In Your Home
The appropriately-named Close for Comfort Theatre Company specialises in taking theatre performances into houses, performing plays in living rooms. They arrive with props and costumes, create a simple set using the sofa or perhaps an armchair and side table, before disappearing into a bedroom to change and reappearing to perform an hour or two of drama for the delight of you and your guests. If invited, they’ll stay after the performance to share a glass of wine with the audience!

This isn’t as daunting as it sounds. It won’t be a cast of thousands: the entire company is made up of an enterprising pair of actors from Surrey, Janet Gill and Glenn Johnson.

“We place our props in your room, but nothing is touched without your permission,” said Janet. “We’re very well behaved!”

They ask for an acting area of about 3.5 metres square [about 12 ft square] and they need a door which can be used for entrances. (If hired they ask to be sent a plan of the room.) They’ve been asked to perform in houses across the country - in suburban semis, urban flats and country mansions - to young professionals looking for something "different"; to country-dwellers fed up with the long trek to the theatre; to people giving their loved ones a surprise birthday or anniversary present with-a-difference.

“We seem popular in Bristol and Suffolk at the moment,” said Glenn, “but we also get a lot of bookings in the Home Counties. One weekend we performed at both a large country house in Warwickshire and a small flat in Catford!”

A large house with lots of space isn’t necessary - a friendly atmosphere is really all that is required. They do need an audience of at least 10 people - this prevents individuals feeling uncomfortable in a small setting. (There is no audience participation!) They offer a combination of one-act plays, both drama and comedy.

“People enjoy the thrill of a live performance in their homes with their friends,” said Janet. “You can hear a pin drop at dramatic moments, and there is much laughter at the comedy, especially if the evening is a celebration like a birthday.”

Sometimes people just want one play to be performed, lasting about an hour, or they have two plays with an interval, spreading the theatre out over two and a half hours. Some hosts give the audience a meal, either between two plays or at the end of the performance.

The word has been spreading in the two years they’ve been in operation. They’ve been featured on BBC Television local news in London and the south, and Richard and Judy on Channel 4 broadcast a film about their work. They’ve been interviewed on Radio Five Live, LBC, Saga Radio, and by numerous BBC and independent radio stations around the country. They’ve also, much to their amusement, been interviewed by a Japanese radio station, and found their way onto television in Virginia, Singapore and Bratislava and into newspapers in Spain, South Africa and India!

If you’d like to get in touch with Close for Comfort Theatre Company check out their site on
www.hometown.aol.com/close4comf

Article contributed by:
Janet Gill and Glenn Johnson
mailto:close4comf@aol.com
Submitted on: 6th August 2004

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