No 41 -- Spring 1994 Edited by Michael Walters
Since I actually took part in this production [as the Headsman] perhaps you should regard this as a description rather than a review! All our shows begin what with the producer, Ken O'Connor, calls his "trademark": a completely newly written opening scene, lasting between five minutes and a quarter of an hour, so that everyone will know that it's one of his productions. After last year's scenario of a pirate wearing a pair of Victorian bloomers which he had just stolen, being chased around the stage by the Sgt. of Police, this year's seemed positively restrained. It began with the fire in the Beauchamp Tower, followed by the escort of Fairfax across the stage, the idea being that Phoebe sees him for the first time and falls in love with him. (There is, of course, the line shortly afterwards, where Phoebe says she's "seen him every day for weeks past" which seems to have escaped the producer's notice). This was followed by a changing of the guard (apart from a few cries of "fire" the whole thing was done in absolute silence) which led to Phoebe's first scene, though when she sang "When maiden loves" she was not alone. Another of the producer's "trademarks" is to invent several new characters. (Past examples include such devastatingly amusing characters as Chastity, the Sorcerer's saucy apprentice, and a sidekick for the Sgt. of Police, "Constable Rookie"). Amongst this year's new characters was an unnamed daughter for the Lieutenant, played by Gemma Foren, who was both dazzlingly pretty and spoke her lines and acted her part extremely well.
Other "improvements" added by the producer included the addition of two extra minstrels (cribbed from the Brent Walker video), the rewriting of Point's "My masters ..." speech and the cutting of the underscoring that goes with it, the addition of a Pavanne, performed by Point and Elsie just before "I have a song to sing O!" and a dance routine for four of the chorus girls, following "Rapture, rapture", in which one, miming Meryll, desperately tried to avoid Dame Carruthers, who was mimed by another one, while the other two danced in the background. (In all fairness, this bit did get a loud applause at most performances). [But what music did they use? Ed.] Even much of the producer's straight staging was incompetent. After "Were I thy bride" Phoebe simply threw the keys across the stage at Shadbolt, and we are then expected to believe he doesn't realise how Fairfax escaped. On the entrance of the Headsman, the entire cast were standing on raised platforms, which covered the back half of the stage and so towered way above him.
The effect of such an awful production was eased in part by the fact that the majority of the principals were of an extremely high standard, the finest performance coming from Karen Hartwell, who was a dazzling Phoebe and took the role at extremely short notice. As the youngest member of the Society she has previously been kept in bit parts, though hopefully she can now ascend to higher roles. Janet Haywood (Elsie) has a strong and powerful voice and excellent diction, but her performance was marred by her appearance. She is a veteran performer, having last played Elsie ten years ago, and in a smallish theatre, all the makeup in the world can't hide the fact that she couldn't possibly pass for even 43 in the dusk with the light behind her. This made the relationships with Point and Fairfax seem ludicrous, and her scenes with them towards the end of Act 2 jarred continuously.
The rest of the cast performed well, although there were a few odd castings: Shadbolt (John Haywood) was a tenor and Dame Carruthers (Shirley Hoyland) a soprano, though the latter performed well. Peter Skelton (Point) has a lisp which, by the end of the evening, irritated one enormously. Peter Johnson (Meryll) sang a version of "A laughing boy", not the original, but an extended adaptation, composed by the MD Gordon Clayton, largely with new lyrics. If no better than the original, it was probably no worse, though it added very little to the production.
RODERICK MURRAY
Web page created 4 August 1998