Archives - July 1992
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Archives - July 1992 |
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Produced by Mary Frost
THE PLAY
Period drama, set in a cottage in the 1900s. Mavis as spent her life looking after her malicious and now elderly mother, Mrs Bell, while her sister Sylvia married, went abroad and had a daughter, Rose. Rose is now going to school in England and she and her mother visit Gorse Cottage. Mrs Bell takes an immediate dislike to Rose and makes every effort to crush her spirit, as she has crushed Mavis's.
Then Arthur Fox, Mavis's admirer in younger days, returns to the area and learns that Mrs Bell had been responsible for destroying his and Mavis' relationship years ago so she could keep Mavis by her side. That night, the figure of Death appears in Mrs Bell's room and frightens her into having a heart attack she barely survives. Local doctor Parry turns amateur investigator and blames Rose for a prank that could have had serious consequences. In fact, it was Sylvia, who hoped the old lady would die and set Mavis free.
Finally, though, everyone leaves and Mavis is alone with her mother and a letter from her secret love, who is to move to Edinburgh and wants her to come with him. Mavis knows Mrs Bell will never stand for that and, taking the maid's cat - her mother is terrified of cats - lets it into the bedroom, closes the door and waits for the old lady's heart to give out...
FROM THE GROUP
This play was a period piece set in the Edwardian era. My
first attempt at costume drama turned out very well indeed and a tight dramatic
play was achieved.
A strong experienced cast gave convincing performances along with newcomer Mike
Liassides making his stage debut with the Cissbury Players.(Since then Mike has
become an indispensible member of the group in too many ways to mention). I
really liked this play for, although not having the strongest dialogue, it
nevertheless afforded the females in particular good acting roles. Our wardrobe
mistress Mary Bailey costumed the play in fine fashion as well as taking one of
the leading roles, and a set was constructed giving an authentic Edwardian
period feel.
The Worthing Herald even picked it as one of the plays they had most loved that
year.
Mary - Producer
Bless. Mary's always nice about people...
I didn't exactly choose to debut on the boards, but it's always tough to get men
into amateur dramatics and the play needed one. I was still young and kind of
sensitive about my alopecia back then (it's legitimate male baldness these
days!), so only agreed to be seen by the public if I had a wig. Bad mistake -
and never again! Mary was very patient, though, and very encouraging. I was
pleased to discover that I don't actually suffer from any sort of nerves on
stage, at any rate. And the performance can't have been too bad, as Ann cast me
in the very next production as well...of course, we still had a shortage of
males, so perhaps it wasn't solely down to acting ability...!
Mike - Actor
PREVIEWS & REVIEWS
Preview from the Worthing Herald, 3rd July 1992
Review from the Worthing Herald, 10th July 1992
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