Undemanding Evening With Elmwood Players

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30393, 18 March 1964, Page 18

Undemanding Evening With Elmwood Players

Those who attended the opening night of Elmwood Players three one-act plays being held this week in their Fulton Avenue Theatre were rewarded by pleasant, undemanding entertainment and a large number of new faces. Of the 23 who acted in the three plays, over half were appearing for the first time. Many of these new actors and actresses had promising stage personalities; no-one, however, showed outstanding talent. Perhaps the most serious weakness in the acting (and in the production) was the tendency for individuals to be so intent on their own performances that they neglected to develop fully their relationships with others onstage with them.

The audience enjoyed the

variety provided by the three plays. The first (“The Godsend”) concerned an Englishwoman who had been “press ganged” into service, mainly intellectual, in a sultans’ harem. This led to a play about another man who found women attractive in numbers—Jack the Ripper. “The Black Bag” gave an unlikely interpretation of why Jack ripped, and why he stopped when he did. From dead women to dead men in a tomb. This time, in “The Faithful Widow of Ephesus,” the surviving women of the recently-deceased men lost no time in taking their revenge for past disappointments. While the plays had variety and some story interest, they were poorly written and barely worth the trouble Elmwood Players had put into producing them. If a play labours an obvious point, if a play could be extensively cut without any loss, if a play cannot decide whether to be satiric or romantic, if a play has stilted and unlikely dialogue, then such a play is not suitable material for a society with Elmwood’s traditions. If the object of the evening was to provide as many members as possible with parts in which they might widen their experience, then all the more reason for choosing plays which make morethan stereotyped demands upon their abilities.

All three casts were competent. In the first play, Peter Brown showed his versatile and sensitively-inflected voice in his part as the sultan: he should know however, that too much variety can be as monotonous as none. Audrea Beddie suited faded-rose-beneath-the-thorn sultana, and Judy Perrott, although she tried a little too hard for such a small theatre, gave pace and punch to the play.

In “The Black Bag,” Gyll Webber stood out for the warmth, coarseness, gaiety, cheapness and charm she managed to combine credibly in the prostitute she played. Noeline Hannan has a lively face and compelling voice, but still lacks complete selfcontrol and concentration. As the publican, Ernest Adams managed his accent efficiently and created a consistent and memorable character.

Mary Armstrong moves well on the stage, has a good sense of timing, and can use her voice. This is also true of Ros. Heinz, who took the title role of “The Faithful Widow” with a fitting sense of swirl and breathlessness. Brian Cooper as the aggrieved husband used deadpan effectively, but could hardly employ any more subtle comic techniques with such an obvious script. Staging and costume had been carefully planned and painstakingly executed. This fact, taken with well-prepared acting, will provide audiences during the rest of the week with diverting relaxation from the everyday world. Such a world is certainly absent from these one-act plays. —P.R.S.