'MY FAIR LADY' A SMASH HIT BY OUR AMATEURS
Full of colour, tunes, sparkle, verve
Review by Rowland Joynson. - Accrington Observer Tuesday December 9th, 1969
"Accrington Amateur Operatic Society's "My Fair Lady" given at Oswaldtwistle Town Hall this week is a smash hit. It fully justifies the heavy bookings which have taken place. According to the officials at Saturday evening's show all seats are booked apart from those at next Saturday's matinee. Even so for one reason or another the odd seat can sometimes be found, though to all intents and purposes apart from the matinee it has been a sell-out.
The feeling must have got around that this is going to be a record show for the Society, and the public have responded.
There are likely to be few, if any, disappointed in their expectations.
The standard of Accrington Amateur Operatic Society's shows has been steadily rising for some years. but, this one seems less like an amateur show than one of professional standards and competence.
The opening night on Saturday was not really the first night. There had been a full scale performance the previous night for an invited audience of members of the Inskip League, the Peter Pan Club, the Blind, etc.
By Saturday the members of the Society had got rid of their first night nerves if they ever had any. In every department the Society seems to shine this year.
WHAT NEXT?
Short of the unlikely event of the ratepayers of Oswaldtwistle forking out the- money for a revolving stage for the Town Hall, it is difficult to see how much further the Society can go. Improvements to the seating especially in the balcony 'are about the only avenue of advance , one can imagine, though the ingenious mind of Mr Norman Entwistle, the president and honorary producer, could well conjure up something more for the future. He is by now a very considerable authority on the musical comedy and light opera stage.
And indeed his mind in this sort of thing has amazing ingenuity. The citizens of Oswaldtwistle this week must be very surprised to discover what the Society under his leadership have made of their Town Hall stage. There are, so many changes of - scene involved in this particular show that something had to be done if we were not to spend half the evening gazing blankly at a pink draw curtain. Even as it is -there is quite a bit of that though it is extremely well covered up by the orchestra and by members of the cast repeating before the curtain.
TWO MINI-STAGES
But Mr Entwistle has had the idea of creating two miniature stages, one at each side of the main stage. Here are placed two of. the smaller sets, the outside of Higgins's house in Wimpole Street, and best of all the upstairs of Higgins's house. This latter scene is played actually on top of the vestibule leading from the stairs into the hall.
Perched up there with a railing in front the players really appear as though they are on the upstairs landing of a house. In this small space the- Society have managed to get in two bedroom doors and a telephone. With economy in the use of space there is just room to put the scene on. The cast probably have to be quite agile to get there, but as it looks to the audience this miniature stage seems tailor-made for the job, particularly with the correct lighting.
Not only for this particular scene but throughout the show the lighting helps enormously. The Society have invested a considerable amount of money in providing special equipment. A good deal of construction work has been done to enable powerful and varied lighting to be installed. There is said to be a compartment specially built above the stage which has been provided for the electrians, and which of course the audience never see.
The lighting does in fact give a most sophisticated finish to the show, and helps immensely to create the right sense of atmosphere. The lights- are raised and lowered, or blacked out precisely: or powerful spotlights are focused o n the soloists as required. It is all done to the split second. It is extremely creditable to the Society and helps to raise the whole level of the show towards one given in a theatre rather than in a Town Hall.
Some beautiful effects are created by the softness of the lighting at times. The opening scene for instance outside Covent Garden Opera House on a cold March night looks exactly what it is supposed to be. The jewels of the ladies gleam in the half light and so does the brazier, and the back cloth is given depth and reality.
But this is only one of many effective scenes. The library of Professor Higgins's home is amply furnished. In fact the setting here is much better furnished than in most past productions.
When a large chorus, not to mention dancing girls, are continually moving on and off the furniture usually has to be minimal. The full ensemble. however, never appear during the five scenes in the library, apart from the finale, which is done differently to , the usual finale because, of this setting. Yet although the main chorus do not appear and also disappear with astonishing alacrity and seemingly without knocking anything over.
A HOLE IN THE SHOW
In this set there is a staircase in the corner, and the sofa, the professor's phonographs and a writing desk which at first glance looks very handsome, until one realises that the professor must never sit at it to do any work.
The chair is on the opposite side to the kneehole. But the desk probably presents a better appearance that way round. and would not be noticed except by those who are looking for holes in the show, and who can only find kneeholes. Incidentally. the scene shifting for this particular set must be expertly efficient to a degree.
Some of the ensembles are brilliant beyond question. In all their history Accrington Amateurs can never have »resented a lovelier and more tasteful setting than this year's Ascot scene. For sheer fragile charm and elegance they have never produced anything like this before.
All the men are in grey with toppers The ladies are all In black and white but all different, and all wearing enormous Edwardian hats- There they pose before a backcloth of a club tent with a hint of red flowers and some gilded chairs It all betokens the ultimate in taste and discretion and it is 'in this scene of supreme gentility that Eliza has to drop her clangers, including the most famous one of all, with incidentally instant and total blackout by the lighting department.
Again, the ballroom scene is a show of glorious elegance. There are stately persons galore about the stage. and dress and jewels of breathtaking splendour, and no pushing and shoving either.
The chorus carry it all off with immense dignity. There seems to be ample space for the dancing, the decorous posing and polite conversation, though actually by all accounts behind the scenes the entire cast are packed like sardines, and getting on and off the stage is like a rugby scrum. If that is so the audience are given no hint of it For them it all looks like Ascot. the ballroom at the embassy, or the humble streets with the motley crowd of costers and flower girls enjoying their fling with abandon in that uninhibited fashion which is intended to emphasise the contrast in the social classes, which is the theme of the play.
For in essence it is a play. Although there is a musical score, in the main it is still George Bernard' Shaw's "Pygmalion" and closely follows that theme.
There is a particularly heavy part for Gordon Robinson as Higgins, the professor of phonetics, who sets out to prove that a flower girl from Covent Garden can speak and act in the same way as the cultured classes If she is trained. He succeeds only to find that he has created no mere puppet, but a figure who demands a life of her own.
In his considerable experience of the amateur stage this must be one of the longest roles he has ever undertaken. He certainly succeeds in creating the irascible professor determined to succeed in his experiment, and furious when he discovers that his creation comes to real life as it were, but finally softening tenderly as the professor realises that in fact he has loved her. Not only does he act the role with a. certain grim determination, and take up a large part of the dialogue but he also has a good deal of singing to do. Though perhaps he would not claim to be a star vocalist, he certainly meets the demands of the part in this respect and of course with it all he has a highly developed acting technique.
Pat Catlow, the former Pat Whelan sustains an almost equally- demanding role as Eliza. She has taken the lead in several of the Society's shows in recent years, but Eliza very probably is a part by which she will be remembered. Not only has she the sweet charm of the flower girl, and the temper too, but she makes a striking appearance among the very stately people there are about the stage and withal launches into glorious song. Sonic of her dresses towards the end are about the last word in elegance.
At the other end of the non-elegant part of. the show there is Stuart Robinson as Doolittle, the dustman, Eliza's father, who scores another success to add to his many with the Society. The energy which he puts into the singing and dancing as he leads the Cockneys, and his superb sense of timing all speak of his long experience with the Society. When the costers finally carry him off to "Get Me to the Church On Time" it makes a
triumphant exit in every sense of the word fully justified by he performance.
There is also some pleasant singing by - Tom Slinger as Freddy- Eynsford-Hill, - Eliza's tipper class suitor' and, admirer waiting with flowers outside the door on the mini-stage at the Side:
John Whittaker is a tall and dignified Colonel Pickering and Sally Hartley makes a splendid figure of Mrs Higgins. Barbara, Watson as Mrs Pearce, Higgins's housekeeper, is on stage quite a bit in the background. lack Riley makes ' a fussy Continental out of 'Zoltan Karpathy, kissing Higgins- on both cheeks at the ball.
MINOR ROLES IN PLENTY
There are minor roles in plenty. There seem to be lots of colourful even id. rather clean looking Cockney- cosier characters, dancing with gusto and singing their heeds off. The same crowd reappear as important-looking people of the utmost dignity. To add to the joy of the costers and also to the grace of the polite world there are the dancing girls helping to create the right atmosphere, and incidentally when they are with the Cockneys they do what seems to be a very popular Can-Can
There are many familiar faces from former shows among the cast. It is perhaps not unfair to mention that : John Iddon, a. former leading, man with the Society, turns up in such minor roles as a. 'Cockney, a servant and just a member of the chorus. This, is just one instance which betokens the immense spirit of- loyalty and enthusiasm which pervades the whole of the Society; and which has culminated this year in a show which many amateur societies could well envy.
Mr Norman Entwistle the honorary producer some - years ago spoke of "My Fair Lady", as his ambition for the Society. Now he has had that amply fulfilled, and fulfilled in spite of the fact that he has had to be absent from come of the rehearsals. Mr Frank Hinchliffe has ably stood in for him.
The Society also have a relatively new musical director in Keith Ellel. His direction of the orchestra and. the music very competent indeed.
There followed a list of the cast and production officials