Marlow Players’ French connection 

Liz Nicholls

Gloria Kendrick tells us about The Marlow Players’ entente cordiale with Les Baladins (“strolling players”) de Marly-le-Roi ahead of another visit in May 

Marlow began a link with Marly-le-Roi, about 12 miles west of Paris, about 1971. Russell Sage, a teacher at Borlase’s Grammar School and a founder member of The Marlow Players, thought it would be a good idea for the Players to form a link with Les Baladins (strolling players) of Marly. Since then two companies have enjoyed visiting each other’s towns, as well as performing to delighted audiences.   

Every other year Les Baladins present a French play in Marlow and the following year The Marlow Players present an English play in Marly. Agatha Christie, Shakespeare and Noel Coward are just some of the playwrights we introduce to our French audiences. This year, for a change, we are taking one of our popular Murder Mysteries, presented in the form of a 1950s BBC radio play. The play will be performed in English, as usual, but there will be explanations in French to help those less fluent in English. The evening will comprise a “diner spectacle” – a meal will be served, probably before the performance begins. (For our home-grown evenings we invite our audience to bring an indoor picnic, which they may consume during our presentation.) During the interval we shall invite our audience to guess the identity of the murderer and, after the denouement, present a small prize for the first correct answer drawn out of a hat.  

As a troupe we shall travel to Paris, Gare du Nord by Eurostar, then by commuter train to Marly.  Two of our number are coming by car, which will be loaded with our props. e.g. our wind machine, some old-fashioned microphones and our costumes. Coach travel has become too expensive for us and we first travelled by Eurostar two years ago, which worked very well, as we had very few props to take along.  The weekend, hosted by Les Baladins and the Marly Twinning Society, was successful and very enjoyable. The one downside was the unannounced train strike by Eurostar staff, which we learned of only when we arrived on Sunday evening at the Gare du Nord.  We had to book in at a nearby hotel for the night and find an alternative method to get home on Monday. It is quite amusing to think back to now, but not so amusing at the time, when the station was full of confused passengers wondering how and when they were going to get back to the UK. 

We are travelling on Eurostar again – the triumph of hope over experience. I’m sure it will be just fine!