No 4 -- March 1976 Edited by Michael Walters
PEOPLE - NO 3. ANDIE GOW (formerly of Liverpool University O.S.)
My first glimpse of this remarkable little phenomenon was as a timid Japanese-clad tailor, dragging an enormous axe backwards on to the stage. That first moment was, though I did not know it at the time, the epitome of Andie's character, for he is always unconventional and unpredictable. In analysing a performance of his, you realise that however strange, however unexpected it may all be, it has all been thought out and it is the sensible, often the only, thing that would be appropriate. Feeling unable to play Sir Joseph Porter as a snooty, toffee-nosed aristocrat, he opted to portray a seedy weak-kneed, and possibly weak-kidneyed, middle aged man who used the whisky bottle to overcome the effects of the rolling of a boat. It worked, but, I suspect, only because it was Andie; and he made it look right. And his Ko-Ko, that happy, carefree little mouse, grinning cheerfully when things went wrong and winning everyone over with that infectious smile and that honest sincerity; here was no gaggling clown hiding behind a fan, but a chap who believed in the part and convinced you. Then came Scaphio - a revelation. Performances of UTOPIA have been so few, that there is really no "tradition" so one could not say that it was conventional or unconventional. He was small, lithe, intelligent, and a bundle of restless energy, - in direct contrast to Phantis who was large, slow and rather dim. Scaphio, in Andie's hands was a sinister, unpleasant being, determined to get his own way, - the power behind the throne, Perhaps the most intriguing moment was when he was violently in love with Zara. It so happened that the girl playing Zara was, in real life, the love of Andie’s life - and as he gazed at her hopelessly, I suddenly sensed a sort of electric current going between them. As she gazed at him scornfully one could really believe that the anguish in his eye was real and not simulated. I doubt, though, if anyone else in the theatre realised what they were seeing. MICHAEL WALTERS
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