Love and identity theft

It is a performer's worst nightmare: sitting ready on stage, the audience looking at you with anticipation and suddenly you realize that a key ingredient for your act is missing. This is exactly what happens to Bertie Wooster, the main character in "By Jeeves", this year's program of the Kimberley Summer Theatre. Set to show off his skills on the banjo in front of visitors of a charity performance at an English church hall, Wooster discovers the instrument has been stolen and replaced with a frying pan.

Wooster's helpful butler Jeeves organizes to have a new instrument shipped to the hall, but Wooster is forced to fill about two hours of show, having no prepared material. While Bertie is ready to give up, Jeeves reminds his employer of the Wooster-Code and suggests he might entertain the crowds with "perhaps an anecdote or two". Bertie agrees and decides to describe one of his adventures, using whatever props are available on short notice and making use of the backstage crew to impersonate his friends and acquaintances.

Together, this improvised theatre troupe tells a story of love triangles and false identities and the more Bertie tries to solve a twisted situation, the more he entangles himself in a web of mix-ups and intrigues. Faced with three friends who find themselves madly in love, Bertie has a more pragmatic view of infatuation. He makes fun of the way people see the objects of their desire: "beautiful, indescribable, loving and tender, too good for this world."

What makes the issue even more tricky is the fact that Bernie is well acquainted with all the players. His friend Gussie Fink-Nottle who is vying for the hand of Madeline Bassett, the magistrates daughter, pretends to be Bertie Wooster to impress her father. Bingo Little has fallen for Honoria Glossop, Bertie's former fiance. Meanwhile, Stephanie "Stiffi" Byng puts a fake engagement announcement in the paper to force Bertie to help her marry the local pastor Harold Tinker. In the end, all issues are resolved to satisfaction. All lovers are united and Bertie even gets to give his performance - the grand banjo finale.

Bertie Wooster is portrayed by Andrew Cownden, a crow favourite on the Kimberley Summer Theatre stage. Having appeared in Good Man, Charlie Brown and Where's Charley? in the previous years, this is Cownden's third season in Kimberley. "When we picked the show, we had him in mind," admits Director Kailey Tiefenbach. She is also a returning artist. After having performed on stage for four seasons and directed the Vaudeville Show last year, this is her first shot at directing the main stage performance.

Tiefenbach says the neatest thing is to see what everyone does with their characters. There is the witty and slightly sarcastic Bertie, the clever Jeeves (Benjamin Miller) who pulls the strings behind the scenes, stuttering and nervous Gussie (Nielsen Tiefenbach), nerdy Bingo (Drew Chale) and gentle Harold (Lucas Blaney). A strong-willed Stiffi (Brittany Cairns) is a clear contrast to the flirty Madeline (Katie Schoenberg) and bubbly Honoria (Nadine Mullen). All three women in their own way pursue the men they love.