Produced by Mrs. Sheila Wills
by J. Barry Roach
Review #1:
Publication: Shoreham Herald
Publication Data: June 16 1961 issue – page 8
Text Header: Woman, 75, with cripled hands, is top at craft … extract
Text: Content
Cup Winner…
Young Wick Players took first place in the group performances of one-act plays. They gave a performance of Tea and Sympathy.
There were six plays, three on Friday and three on Saturday. The Friday productions were The Mayor of Torontal by The Anonymous Players [Burgess Hill]; Sailor Beware by Good Old Timers’ Club [WVS Burgess Hill] and Tea and Sympathy the eventual winners.
These were followed on Saturday by Southwick Players’ presentation of The Gentle Guardsman; Everyman by Friends Centre Drama Group and A Summer in New Orleans by Thespis Workshop.
The hall was about 60 per cent full on Friday, but on Saturday it was so full that people had to be turned away.
Review #2:
Publication: Brighton & Hove Gazette
Publication Data: June 16 1961 issue
Correspondent: THESPIS
Text Header: Southwick Players again win festival drama contest
Text: Content
THE drama section of the Southwick and Fishersgate Community Centre Festival of Arts and Crafts last weekend was won by the Young Wick Players with a moving and intelligent production of an excerpt from Tea and Sympathy by Robert Anderson.
Laura, wife of schoolmaster Bill Reynolds, was played quite outstandingly by Jean Porter, her husband by Ralph Dawes and the sensitive Tom Lee, branded by his schoolfellows as a homosexual, by Raymond Hopper. Other parts were by Ross Workman, Betty Dawes, Adrian Hedges, Christopher Mitchell and Barrie Bowen. Inspired direction was by George Porter.
The Anonymous Players from Burgess Hill presented The Mayor of Torontal, by Gwenyth Jones, directed by Vera Margerison. This simple story of the mayor and inhabitants of a presumably middle-European village who fell under the mesmeric spell of a charming newcomer was well characterised but was lacking in production technique.
The Good Old timers’ Club [W.V.S], also from Burgess Hill, entered an extract from Phillip King’s Sailor Beware. While it was a very gallant effort by the “old timers”, the characterisation was sadly adrift, only D. Hunter, as the dim-witted Edie, really scoring. Other parts were played by G.Lane, E, Smith and A. Smith, with production by Mrs. Sheila Wills.
The Friends’ Centre Drama Group from Brighton were unfortunately precluded from entering competitively as they were unable to present the play they had notified. Instead they gave the two miracle plays that I had previously seen at the Friends’ Centre and these were much improved on the previous showing. Production was by Raymond Raikes.
The Southwick Players, with Edward Hood as producer, gave Peter Coke’s The Gentle Guardsman. The Players squeezed every possible point from this feeble little play of the supposed miracle at a village church which proves quite natural in origin. Edmund Andrew played the Rector, with Venetia Baker as his wife and Doreen Atkinson as his sister. Mrs. Torrington, grower of Gentle Guardsman roses, was Kay Russell. Other village residents were played by Pauline George, Jean Maechler, Edward Hood, jnr., Ivy Oborne, Eileen Banfield, Marianne Van De Core, Ena Collis, Pat Fludder and Dorothy Twine.
Thespis Workshop did well with an excerpt from J. Barry Roach’s turgid play, Summer in New Orleans, with Peggy McKercher as Margot, the woman with a tragic past, and James Maguire as Steve, escaping from his own past; both gave sincere and telling performances. Doll, the gay girl from upstairs, was Beryl Warne, and Tommy, the paper boy, was played by Bob Sampson. Direction by Walter Hix.
The festival was adjudicated by Miss E. M. Parry.
[SEE PAGE 9] for pictures of George Porter discussing last minute changes with stage manager Helen Suter. And one of Jean Porter applying make-up to Raymond Hopper.
Review #3:
Publication: Brighton & Hove Gazette
Publication Data: June 16 1961 issue
Correspondent: THESPIS
Text Header: THE SOUTHWICK FESTIVAL
Sub Header: Rules must be kept on both sides
Text: Content
THE group drama section of the Southwick and Fishersgate Community Centre Festival of Arts and Crafts last weekend underlined the fact that if such a festival is to be run then it must be properly organised.
The rules having been decided upon and distributed must be kept on both sides. This was not always done. For example, one drama group sought clarification of the rule regarding timing and were informed that the acting time must be as stated, that was not less than 25 minutes and not more than 40. The group trimmed their entry accordingly to their own disadvantage. On the first night of the festival two entries ran over time and the third under time. Then the adjudicator blandly announced that she was ignoring timings!
This slap-happy manner of running a competitive festival does not command the respect of drama groups, and things should be tightened up before next year.
I feel that all of the groups which took part will want to join me in a vote of thanks for the festival stage managers, H. Scrasse, Raymond Hopper and Clodagh O’Farrell, and to T. Bannister, who handled the lighting. They were all as helpful as possible and nothing was too much trouble for them.
In a canter
The Young Wick Players won the cup in a canter. Their presentation of the excerpt from Tea and Sympathy was, I thought, a really fine piece of production and acting which could hardly be faulted.
I wonder if it was really necessary for the adjudicator to fire a broadside of what I consider to be frequently invalid criticism? She did not appear to be well versed in the techniques demanded by the convention in which the play was written, nor of the tendency towards monotony which is inherent in the American intonation.
It is impossible to criticise Tea and Sympathy by the criteria applicable to Laburnum Grove.
