The Yorkist

THE AMAZING OVERNIGHT RISE TO STARDOM OF ALBERT WINSTON NUBBS
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This year's end of term play took a refreshing form in that, for the first time, it was written entirely by the principal members of the cast and the producer. Of course, to decide to sit down and write a musical-comedy is a very ambitious idea and I know that feelings towards the play from both the cast and the prospective audience, right up until the play went on show, were hesitant. However, both parties need not have worried: the play was an unequalled success watched by a highly amused and appreciative audience on every night.

Just in case anyone did not see the play (the eighth deadly sin!) the basic story showed the struggles of singer/composer Albert Winston Nubbs to reach fame and prosperity through each musical era of the last twenty years and failing at everything he attempts. Meanwhile, as a sub-plot, his son Albert Winston Nubbs Junior, rises from public school to achieve, without effort, the success that his father could never obtain. (There's a moral for Tony Benn there somewhere!). Of course, Albert's rocky path to failure is liberally sprinkled with other obstacles such as the ungrateful wife, a devious Jewish agent, a more than hostile father plus being hounded by gangsters and mugged by a trio of sailors in New York. Well, it seems that Albert's incompetence was only matched by his stubbornness.

It is very difficult to single out individual actors because everybody in the play did so well. However, I do think the principal members do deserve a mention, if only to get their names in the "Yorkist". Special congratulations go to Albert Winston Macdeeds Richards, Andy Bennett (Oy-vay, my boy!), Tim Huggins, Chris (the trumpet) Maile, Steve (the compere) Day, Mark (Travolta) Fynn, Gary Knight (a fine asset for the future), Keith Raynor, Mark Watkins and everyone else who isn'' mentioned, but whose hard graft was appreciated by all.

The group (Steve Bostock, Victor Nicholls, Paddy Hodgkinson, Mr. Adams) must be congratulated on their superb accompaniment. Those who wrote the songs did a superb satirical job on all types of music from skiffle to punk-rock and to the Bee Gees.

Finally, then, thanks again to all the cast, Mr. Johnson and everyone else who helped to give the school such a fine performance.

M. TINSLEY

A Mid-Summer Night's Dream

The first surprise for the audience of the 1981 Grand Day dramatic production was that we were the ones who took up station on the stage. Well most of us. There were a few rows of seats in the auditorium too - at the stage end - but the great part of the space here was given over to the acting area. This was my fourth viewing of an end of year play at the school and the first time for me to see Shakespeare. I do not think many would dispute the fact that Shakespeare presents a cast with an acid test for their competence. The rather antique quality of the language, the compactness of the diction, the vivid brilliance of the imagery all demand that the actors really know their stuff. They must have mastered their characterisations and their lines so that we who watch and listen understand what is going on with relative ease and, certainly in the case of Mid-Summer Night's Dream, with delight.

To my mind, Ben Johnson's production of this frothy extravaganza provided an enjoyable and memorable evening. There are three levels to the play; the Lovers, the Mechanicals and the Fairies, each level having times when it has the stage to itself and others when it runs into one or even both the other levels. It is essential too that each section has an evenness in the quality of performance.

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