Review: Merton Floats present 'London Assurance'

Trinity saw the return of the Merton Floats' Garden Play in the beautiful setting of Fellows' Lawn. Glorious sunshine saw all four performances of farcical Victorian comedy London Assurance played outside to large audiences, garnering a profit for the society and four star reviews from both student papers.

Merton involvement was high – the play was directed by Finola Austin (director of the previous garden show Charley's Aunt in 2011) and Tim Coleman, who both graduated from the college in 2012, and produced by Elizabeth Biggs, Merton Floats president, another 2012 graduate and current postgraduate student at the college. Doctoral student Benedict Morrison delighted audiences as the audacious trickster Richard Dazzle, and enjoyed returning to the Oxford stage after a ten-year absence; second year undergraduate Sarah Jones was Assistant Producer; while first year Mertonian Linnet Kaymer appeared as the hapless maid Jenny. Rozina Bashir, a 2012 graduate now working as a Graphic Designer, designed the poster.

The rest of the ten-strong cast were students from across the university, from Balliol, Magdalen, New, St Anne's, St Peter's and University Colleges – some familiar faces from university drama, others first years enjoying their first foray into the Oxford garden play tradition.

The play's success was due to the organisation and hard work of a small but dedicated crew, good casting and great weather, and it was particularly gratifying to see very varied audiences across the week – students, alumni and relatives came out in force along with Oxford residents and visitors unconnected to the university, who were attracted by a street marketing campaign (in full Victorian dress!).

The garden play is an Oxford oddity – pitting productions against unpredictable weather, ill-timed helicopter noise and the various other difficulties of outside performance, but also drawing attention to the beautiful surroundings we are lucky enough to enjoy in college and allowing students to create something memorable within them. London Assurance was a memorable production for the team behind it and the audiences who attended, maintaining a tradition in recent years of the Merton Floats' Garden Play as promoting fun, light-hearted and accessible drama, which looks set to continue as the reins are passed on to next year's committee.

Review by Finola Austin