Bagni di Lucca’s theatre was packed last night. The cast for the town’s drama group was larger than ever before. Expectations were high and, happily, they were fully achieved in an evening of triumph for local dramatic societies like Bagni’s CIAK.

‘Il mistero in casa Arquette’ is a classic whodunit and, like all good whodunits, it has a quite surprising twist at the end. Was it no-one or was it everyone ‘whodunit?’ The plot revealed every kind of interaction and emotional release between the eleven cast members: from fighting to fainting, from burlesque to hysterics and the actors achieved great flexibility. The diction was mostly very good, although some lines were lost because spoken too softly. It may be a whisper but even a whisper should be heard! Character transformations were often stunning: turning from a dowdy look to one of elegance, for example, is not that easy… The interplay between the eleven actors was very well timed and no cues appeared to be missed.

I tried to find out who wrote or adapted the Arquette house’s mystery but could not discover anything about it when I returned home except that there is a reference to Molière’s ‘Le malade imaginaire’ in the play. However, what I did discover was that amateur dramatics in our comune, under the guidance of director-actress Guendalina and tenor-trainer Claudio, is thriving more than ever.

Well done all those involved with putting on a spiffing show on Bagni di Lucca’s first really warm evening. All their effort fully paid off (I know from my own experience in their Christmas production for 2016 that being an actor is hard work.) It was a truly dramatic occasion!