Silchester Players

Silchester Players' production at the Village Hall was as ingenious as it was unusual.  It was a thing of contrasts with an attempt to be thought-provoking in an amusing way with The Cinderella Story followed by the serving up of the varied menu at Mr Macaroni's Pizza establishment with an exploding pizza pie.

The story of Cinderella was dealt with as if the traditional story had emerged over the ages completely wrong.  The walls of the hall were decorated with Gazette posters with 'Cinderella shock exposures' and 'Prince plot victim' billed.

Bryony Paton as Cinderella did not have to endure the usual hardships.  The Ugly Sisters Honoraria and Lavinia played by Janice How and Wendy Roper went out of their way to be kind to Cinders who preferred to appear more undressed than dressed despite the finery showered upon her.

They related their story to an eager journalist — Keith Graham with Glenise Masters as secretary.  Marilyn Fowler was the Godmother, Pat Brown The Baroness and Tim Oliver The Prince.

The Pizza parlour was a runbustious affair with Mack Flemington as proprietor Mr Luigi Macaroni.  This light-hearted entertainment was built round three powerful characters who were brilliant at playing the fool with Janet Taylor as Nellie, Liz Robertson as Drippy Dora and Allen Betts as Wordsworth.

They were all fired for their inefficiency as members of the waiting staff and tried their utmost to prove their worth in other directions.  When that failed they sought revenge.

As a kind of diversion there was an amusing hairdressing salon scene with Barbara Fairbrother as Eileen Nostril and Doug Overett as Norman Nostril — an aunt and nephew relationship.

To add to the fun there were Wendy Roper as Lolita Suspender, Tim Oliver as Brigadier Bumbracket, Kevin Geary as Major Shareholder and Janice How as Madame Dubonnet.

John Gardiner and Fiz Coleman wrote the script and to bring it all to life so successfully Les Masters produced and directed.

Silchester Players indulged in some good old time foolery in their popular presentation of Calleva Fever, amusing sketches being punctuated by chorus girls and Silchester's own troupe of Negro minstrels especially recruited for the occasion.

Purveyors of the light-hearted entertainment were Barbara Fairbrother and Janet Taylor, who jointly directed and produced.  It savoured the old time music hall with a touch of modernity thrown in with young dancers, grotesquely presented, dancing the Thriller.  Needless to say this was extremely popular with young members of the audience.

Some of the sketches were brilliantly devised and subtlely presented such as that of The Saracens telling the story of 16-year-old Neil.  The anonymity of the two performers noted in the programme must be observed.  This was the most amusing sketch of all for those looking for a good laugh although the prudish could have been offended.

The sketch Mind the Trains with Janice How, Mack Flemington, Alf Campsie, Keith Graham, Allen Betts, Brian Hope, Marilyn Fowler amd Bryony Paton was very good value with Mack Flemington excelling as the station porter.  I also enjoyed The Tramp who knew how to retain a park seat for himself with Mack Flemington disguising himself as a man of the road.

The Phantom Sausage Stealer with Brian Hope, Janice How, Pat Brown, Robert Whitehead and Tim Oliver, and Muesli were ideal sketches, the latter being performed by Pat Brown, Janet Hope, Alf Campsie, Harvey Thomas and Keith Graham.

The ensembles were very good, especially that of the Black and White Minstrels in which girls of the chorus joined in the numbers.  The opening ensemble, like Steam Heat which started the second half were very brief and easily good enough in presentation to warrant more.

This was also true of the final chorus Comedy Tonight sung with such light abandon, so brief as to give an anti-climax to an excellent evening.