Murder Party

by Falkland L. Carey

February  14, 15, 16  1957

Directed by Betty Gedge

Review of the time

D.P

" Well done - But they should not do it! "

The acting had its good moments.  Its bad moments, one felt, could have been blamed on the restrictions of a small stage, for occasionally the movements of the cast were either not smooth or not there at all.  But one point that became more obvious as the play wore on was the slight lack of expressiveness in gestures.  A shrug of the shoulders should convey infinitely more meaning than a line boomed across the footlights with an amplifier.

The three main characters interpreted by Derek Wass, Diana Topping and Seamus McGurk, and Mary Gedge as the wronged Norwegian maid never once let her accent slip.  The villain of the piece [he was also the murder victim]  was played in good, menacing style by Patrick Johnson, and Adrian Hedges gave excellent support as another character involved in shady dealings.  Ralph Dawes who designed and executed the scenery, had a difficult part as the altogether false representation of a Scotland Yard detective who extracted confessions with methods for from ethical.  Nevertheless, he sustained the pace demanded of the part.  Sally Rossington and Joe Mohan were competent as the drug-addict and detective's adviser, and Patricia Holloway and Jacqueline McInnes managed to raise the laughs they were supposed to raise at tense stages in the plot.  The play was produced by Betty Gedge.

The Happiest Days of Your Life

by John Dighton

April  11, 12, 13  1957

Directed by Mary Gedge

One review of the time

D.P.

" High standard in farcical comedy "

Patrick Johnson, as the headmaster, fluttered and fussed superbly like a house-proud sparrow, and Betty Gedge [Miss Evelyn Whitchurch] was grimly unyielding to every influence likely to bring a moral collapse in 'my gels'.  Betty carpenter brought a quietly shuffling gawkiness to the extrovert Miss Gossage,  a part too many actresses tend to over exaggerate, and the sober competence of Seamus McGurk, as the cynical Rupert Billings provided just the right note of relief.  Ralph Dawes and Jean Porter fitted nicely into the background a the continually thwarted pair of lovers, and Derek Wass, Valerie Briggs, Adrian Hedges and Sally Rossington made a convincing set of parents whose uneasiness about the circumstances at Hilary Hall gives way to stunned realisation.   Raymond Hopper and Clodagh O'Farrell - both still at school - though not quite the holy terrors one would expect Hopcroft Mi and Barbara Cahoun to be, added a mischievous touch to the production.  Finally, there was George Porter, who stumbled around as the ancient Rainbow.  

The Importance of Being Earnest

by Oscar Wilde

October  31  November 1, 2  1957

Directed by Patrick Johnson

Assisted by George Porter

One review of the time

Roy Martin

" Wilde was big test for Young Wick Players "

The Young Wick Players made a gallant attempt at it at the Barn Theatre, Southwick, last week.  The production occasionally was a trifle stiff and self-conscious, and some of the lines needed sharper pointing, but the group had clearly grasped the fact, as one of the characters has it, "style, not sincerity, is the vital thing", and the wit flashed and glittered in  a way the made us realise, sadly, that Wilde had no equal in the contemporary theatre, unless it be Noël Coward. 

Comic dilemma 

In Wilde's deliberately absurd plot the name is everything, and a man is only as good as his pose.  s the two young men in the anguish of love, Ian Elliott and Patrick Johnson gave assured performances displaying a pretty sense of comic dilemma.  The two girls who twist them around their [well-bred] little fingers were delightfully played by Jean Porter and Betty Gedge.  Miss Porter's portrait of the disdainful Gwendolen was beautifully spoken with exactly the right note of elegant malice, and Betty Gedge made a fetching ingénue of the dewy-eyed, worldly-wise Cecily. 

Elizabeth Penney lacked the equipment for a really awesome Lady Bracknell, but what she could do she did capably. Ralph Dawes was amiability itself as the wooly-minded Canon Chasibule, but Betty Carpenter did not really 'get to grips' with the character of the governess Miss Prism - admittedly a difficult 'passive' rôle.  Ian Elliott and Ross Workman were suitably austere and dignified as town and country man-servants, and Jacqueline McInnes filled the minor rôle of Tweenie.   

The play was produced by Patrick Johnson and George Porter, and although one or two of the key scenes eluded them, they handled most of it with gratifying finesse.  The play requires three set changes, a difficulty for even the best-equipped amateurs.  The Young Wick's first set had that utility look, but in the second they managed a charming rose trellis. 

Summing up: a wise choice well done.