DRAMA IN THE HIGGS-EDMONDS PERIOD.
In school drama 1935-46 it was a period of apparent quiet. One has
to remember several things: 1938-46 was taken up by the imminence of
war; its reality; then the gradual return of men from the forces; lastly,
the turning over of the dramatic work by Miss R.L.M. Cleaver to Miss
Alice Higgs (then in charge of Latin) and Mr. Philip Edmonds (who came
to us as Senior English Master in January 1937).
In 1947 came the first Higgs- Edmonds production. It was in two parts: the
first, a short play by J. M. Synge"Riders
to the Sea" in which Rita Whiting (an evacuee from Yardley Grammar
School who stayed on with us), Anne Bollen, Joan Dorney and J. Stanley
took the leading parts; the second half was devoted to the comic scenes
from Aristophanes'"Frogs",
in which Freda Grimmett and John Howell took the leading roles with Lilian
Oakman as leader of the chorus. The masks produced by Mr. Alan Sands for
the"Frogs" and the wind-machine provided by the Technical
forms are worth special mention.
In the same year Mr. Ramage formed a Middle School Dramatic Society and
its first productions, two one-act plays, were given at the end of term
to the
First and
Second Forms on the morning of December 17, and an afternoon performance to
the remaining Forms on December 18. The first play was"Biscuits
and Burglars" written
by the producer and the second"St. Anthony's Eve" by Gordon
Hardy. Both were light comedies and were thoroughly enjoyed. Amongst the two
casts were several who were to graduate to the upper School Dramatic and Musical
Societies.
In 1948 the new producers launched into the deep with"The Devil's
Disciple" by G. Bernard Shaw. After surviving the ordeal of a performance
to the school, a public performance followed on Wednesday, February 25. The hall
was packed, evidence of the success of their first production. Lilian Oakman,
a Sixth Former, wrote"To those who brew them the characters were recognisable
as school fellows, but they succeeded admirably in the arduous tasks of assuming
adult roles and emotions. Congratulations are extended to those who made the
excellent and realistic scenery (actually Mr. A. Sands and his Technical Department).
The costumes were splendid (due mainly to Denise Richards, who also took a part
in the play): the parts were, as usual, well distributed and well portrayed.
Every member of the cast deserves praise but special mention must be made of
the leading characters. Freda Grimmett, G. Oliffe and J. Howell gave attractive
portrayals of Judith Anderson, Mr. Anderson and the Devil's Disciple.
Rita Whiting and J. Stanley were amazingly realistic in their parts of the
shrewish
old Mrs. Dudgeon and her simple minded son. Nita Davis gave a fine rendering
of the difficult part of Essie: Brian Croot, with his mobile eyebrows, almost
stole the show in the delightful role of Genera Burgoyne. Michael Martyn and
P. Cornaby were well cast in their parts of the irascible Major Swindon and
the typical British Sergeant. The remainder of the cast were good in their
characterisations
of the lawyer, the family relatives and the British soldiery. Naturalness was
the key-note of the evening. Comments of the audience during the intervals
were appreciative and revealed that even those prepared to be critical were
pleased
with the performance. The praises overheard made one proud to think that these
promising artistes belonged to our school.
In 1949 the producers took yet another forward step and produced"The Apple
Cart" by G. Bernard Shaw. Here I quote a criticism written by Miss Ruth
Burch, at that time a backstage helper and member of the V1th. She says"This
year the play ran to two public performances, as well as a matinee for the school.
Everything went well from the moment the curtain went up. John Howell quickly
got things going in the character of the"plain" Boanerges, which
he played with his usual versatility. The rather uneducated but good-hearted
President of the Board of Trade soon set the audience laughing. As a contrast,
there was the extremely clever King Magnus, whose performance in the role of
Proteus, the Prime Minister, who strove with all his might and main to keep his
unruly cabinet together in order to combat the king's ambition to rule
the country without reference to them. The exasperation cabinet ministers gave
him good support so that his very realistic bursts of temper did not seem unfounded,
but very natural in the circumstances. Martyn, Howell and Oliffe certainly gave
their characters life. Gerald Cooke was also very good as the American Ambassador.
The other male parts, the cabinet ministers and the king's two private
secretaries, did not offer the players so much individual scope, though they
made as much of them as possible.
Of the ladies, Freda Grimmett was extremely good as the much-tried Power-Mistress
General, particularly when she described her struggles against the power of
Breakages Ltd., and when her schoolma'amish asperity caused some unfortunate wretch
to curl up under her withering glance. Amanda, the Postmistress General was an
entirely different personage, equally well portrayed by Megan Lewis, who although
a sore trial to Proteus, was a great delight to the audience and relieved the
tension of the moment most admirably with her description of her electioneering
methods and her song"Daddy wouldn't buy me a bow-wow!" Beryl
Tomkins gave a fine rendering of Orinthia, so that we can feel sure the audience
can have had no inkling of the difficulty which she experience in overcoming
her natural modesty. Nita Davis made a very successful queen, evincing the regal
dignity and sweetness that was needed to contrast her with her rival".
Graham Oliffe's performance, as King Magnus, was quite superb since by
the very nature of his part the success, or otherwise, of everyone's
efforts from producers to players depended upon him. It was probably the outstanding
individual performance that I saw in any school play. No wonder Graham decided
to follow Martin (who went in 1913) to R.A.D.A. As for the play as a whole
I
would choose it as the most enjoyable, absorbing and successful of any school
play I was privileged to see.
In 1950 most of the leading players of the previous years had left. The producers
chose ‘The Taming of the Shrew' by William Shakespeare and were
fortunate enough to find Gwyn Johnson and Carol Westacott ready to take the
leading roles
of Petruchio and Katherine with quite outstanding success and tremendous zest.
As usual the supporting players were good too., with Glyn Merrett and excellent
Christopher Sly and Douglas Voyce equally good as Grumio. George Halladay,
Leeyson James, Sheila Smith, Dulcie Vaughan, Geoffrey Curtis, Michael Lewis
and Audrey
McDowell with many others made up a cast of 23, forming a fine team. The audiences,
packed as usual, gave the players a very fine, well-earned reception and clearly
enjoyed it as much as the players did. Miss Alice Higgs recalls there was just
one calamity when a player lost his cloak and left someone on the stage alone
- without lines to speak - for 5 whole seconds which to the producers seemed
like 5 years!
In 1951, Miss Higgs achieved a life-long ambition by producing, again with Mr.
P. Edmonds, James Elroy Flicker's"Hassan". The choice was
thought to be a little daring for a school play in those days: it would pass
without comment today. It was extremely spectacular and very dramatic; beautifully
directed; equally well played with Gwyn Johnson, Carol Westacott and June Phipps
in the leading parts, and a cast of over 40. The sets made great demands on the
Handicraft Staff - with moving walls - but all problems were met, as usual, with
great calm and efficiency. It was given on three successive nights to packed
and highly appreciative audiences. I have reason to think the producers both
felt it was their best production and they could be right.
In 1952 the producers chose a shorter play than usual, G. Bernard Shaw's"Androcles
and the Lion", which enabled them to introduce three very short scenes
from Shakespeare with which to preface the main play. This also compensated for
the fact that Saw's play offered few parts to the girls. First Queen of
England (played by Iris Mansell) has her first lesson in English from Alice (played
by Wendy Phillips). Then followed a scene from"The Merchant of Venice" where
Portia (Ann Harris) considers her suitors with Nerissa (Jill Burcher - Now Mrs.
A. Jones our School Secretary). Finally there was a scene from"Twelfth
Night" where Viola (Jill Edmonds), disguised as Orsino's serving
man and herself in love with him, pays court on his behalf to Olivia (Rosemary
Jones) with Maria (Vivien Warner) as the serving maid. These scenes made an excellent
hors d'oeuvre to the main work of the evening.
Here George Halladay as Androcles and John Hale as the Lion did extremely well
and were well supported by Colin McDowell as the Captain Denzil Teague as Lavina,
Derek Worgan as Ferroxius and Rex Cole as the Emperor. As usual in L.G.S. productions
the cast of 38 gave them the excellent support. Miss Higgs and the girls made
the beautiful costumes for this and the early scenes, whilst Mr. Alan Sands and
his assistants took care of the properties and staging very efficiently. The
audiences were very large on each of the three nights and as enthusiastic as
ever, especially over the performances of George Halladay and John Hale.
Miss Higgs and Mr. Edmonds were both due to leave us at the end of 1953 so they
decided to put on their last play"Twelfth Night" on July 20th and
21st, as part of our Jubilee celebrations. The intention was to stage it out
of doors and use the natural platform near the big tree in the middle of the
school grounds. The wall dividing the field would, they hoped, hide all the back-stage
activity. At the time it seemed an ideal way to bring their magnificent dramatic
work to a fitting climax. However as Philip Edmonds said at the time, examinations
made rehearsal time all too short and then to cap it all the British weather
decided to have the final say and the weather forecast was so gloomy (and proved
correct for once!) that regretfully it was decided to move everything into the
School Hall. It was a bitter disappointment to all concerned but fortunately
the performance made up for it. Colin McDowell played the Duke; Denzil Teague,
Viola; Gillian Slade, Olivia (and according to the local press she ‘stole
the show'); with Brian Lewis as Malvolio. All were excellently cast and
were well supported by Jill Edmonds as Maria, Wendy Phillips as Feste, Glyn Hoare
as Sir Toby and Norman Tipton as Aguecheek. Other supporting roles were equally
well played.
In spite of the production troubles the large audiences went away extremely happy
with what they had seen and the players had good reason to think they had given
their producers a happy send-off.
My own judgment, and I saw every play at every performance, is that Miss Higgs
and Mr. Edmonds had not only enjoyed their arduous task over the seven years
for which they were responsible but had good reason to feel deep satisfaction
with the magnificent standard they achieved year after year with all kinds of
young people.
J. H.
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