Glorious
Review by Ruth Widen
Priors Players’ latest production Glorious (St Mary Bourne 13,14 & 15 March) hardly hit a dud note. It needed strong acting and good comic timing, and Priors Players have these resources and used them. Producer Sophy Blakeway and team provided an excellent framework for the actors and Director Tony Styles coaxed splendid performances out of them. The audience was given a glass of sparkly-bubbly on arrival and the rest of the evening continued to delight. The art deco sets, seas of silk flowers, and spectacular costumes were all a visual treat.Glorious, written by Peter Quilter and first performed in 2005, is based on the true story of a middle-aged American heiress, Florence Foster Jenkins, who mistakenly believed she had a divine voice. This conviction drove her to pay for solo recording sessions and give live operatic performances to selected audiences which became a source of disbelieving delight in New York in the 1930’s & 40’s. The comedy depends on the force of Florence’s personality and her relationship with the satellite characters in the orbit of her “stardom”.Hilary Jones captured Florence’s crash insensitivity and unstoppable force. Jenkins may have been an egotistical monster, but Jones also showed her vulnerability - that her life would be destroyed if hostile criticism and self doubt crept in. This was a bravura performance and her singing had to be heard to be believed! Within the star’s inner circle, Florence’s English boyfriend St Clair Byfield, was acted by John Dixon with debonair bonhomie providing a faint whiff of sex appeal which steadied over-heated hearts and made light of his washed-up theatrical talent and dependence on a meal ticket. Bridget Culley played Florence’s dippy Best Friend Dorothy to great comic effect. Her fluttering tipsiness, inappropriate flirting and devotion to her dog showed that even the fringes of stardom brought excitement into her lonely life. One of the best comic moments of the play is when Dorothy and her dog come out of the shadows. This was particularly loved by the audience. As Madam’s Mexican maid, Maria, Jane Snow brought some different excitement into Florence’s over-furnished apartment. With her blistering contempt edged with threat, Snow was a blast of fire which raised the comic temperature. Maybe no one understood a word she was saying, but the message was clear! And the audience was equally mesmerised by Derek Kane’s surprising portrayal of a Manhattan socialite at war with Florence on the grounds of musical talent, taste and social acceptability. In their minor roles as recording studio engineers, Graham Richardson’s and Alan Hitchcock’s expressions & actions said it all.In particular, James Faber excelled as an effete young piano player, Cosme McMoon, looking for a career break whilst his contemporaries were fighting a war on the Normandy beaches. McMoon’s is a pivotal part as a knowing outsider/commentator whose doubts about betraying his musical integrity were first assuaged by Florence’s money and then by the glorious dream of appearing on stage at Carnegie Hall, NY. Faber trod a delicate line, but kept his balance and produced an excellent and well-rounded comic performance. His closing speech was a touching & sensitive epitaph.St Clair Byfield had a line in the play: “None of us do this because we want to be judged. We only do it because we want to be loved” On this occasion Priors Players needn’t fear judgement. The cast gave it all they’d got. Their enthusiasm and enjoyment was transferred to the audience and shared. The verdict was unanimously in their favour. Glorious.The Herbal Bed
Review by Ruth Widen
Once again, the combined talents of Hilary Jones (Director) and Sophy Blakeway (Producer) brought a superbly crafted production to St Mary Bourne Village Hall.
The costumes, props and sets were magnificent; and particularly outstanding was the pre-publicity material and ticket & programme designs (Tony Styles/Hilary Jones).
“The Herbal Bed” is a complex contemporary play and an ambitious choice for an amateur dramatic company but in all the Players excelled themselves in the moral dramas which both underpinned and undermined the society in which they were cast.
The play’s title refers to a garden in Stratford in 1613 where Dr John Hall- the husband of Shakespeare’s daughter Susanna – grew medicinal herbs for his practice. But all was not well in the garden. Other things flourished as well – pride, guilt, jealousy, passion, betrayal, lust, etc, as well as poisonous plants which required specialist knowledge & application.
The plot revolved around a malicious accusation from a medical apprentice, Jack Lane that Susanna Hall had taken a lover and also that she suffered from venereal disease. To protect their reputation, Susanna’s husband Dr John Hall, issued an action for defamation to be heard by the Church Court at a time when any deviation from religious and social law could be a matter of life or death.
Amber Thacker - a newcomer to the Players’ ranks – was revelatory as Susanna, carrying off this demanding role with expressive vivacity and grace; and Tony Styles put in his strongest appearance yet as Susanna’s lover Rafe Smith. These were both masterful performances, strongly conveying the desperate temptations of illicit love and the perils of social exposure. Eight-year old Amelia Anstess gave a charming performance of sweet innocence in her first appearance for the Players as the Halls’young daughter, Elizabeth. Her role contrasted sharply with that of the delinquent medical student Jack Lane played with rampant attitude by another talented newcomer James Faber. John Dixon and Jane Snow were excellently cast as Dr Hall – a good man blind to the withering of his marriage – and Hester, the Halls’ loyal servant whose sharp eyes missed nothing.
During a time of religious turmoil and witch hunts. Hugo Wurzer was a beautifully benign Bishop of Worcester, whilst his Vicar General, Barnabus Goche, impressively played by Derek Kane, was determined to get down and dirty in his quest for sinners. In Goche’s dark world it was a straight fight between mortal bodies and immortal souls, but for the play’s other protagonists the choices weren’t so simple. As a line on the programme stated: “Sometimes telling the truth is the most immoral act of all”.