RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31830, 7 November 1968, Page 16

RANDOM REMINDER

TOAD IN A HOLE

The clever men at Oxford Know all that there is to be knowed. But they none of them

know One half as much As intelligent Mr Toad! Toad was feeling pretty pleased with himself when he came up with the lines. But there was another Toad who recently felt anything but happy. It was at a rehearsal of “Toad of Toad Hall,” and the wardrobe department proudly produced for him a full Mr Toad mask, from a previous production. Our Mr Toad struggled into it, being forced rapidly to the conclusion that the previous Mr Toad had been of a much smaller build than himself. It was one of those masks which comes down completely over the head and neck. It was hard to get on.

It was extraordinarily difficult to get off. While the temperature inside the mask increased steadily,

the rest of the cast, producers,' stage-hands, etc., heaved and hauled to free him; that is, those able to apply themselves diligently to the task and not giving way to paroxysm's of heartless laughter. Ultimately, they succeeded in wrenching the huge mask off, but the task took so long that there was plenty of time to reflect on the problems which would be posed by a failure of the mission. What woman would care to be woken from a virtuous sleep by the smugglings of Mr Toad trying to get his shirt over his enormous head? And waking in the morning . • . the fairy tales yield evidence of princesses waking

to find their frogs are handsome princes, but to go to bed with a Toad and wake up with , toad beside you is not the right way to start the day. It would have been a traumatic experience for the children. And for Mr Toad, a difficult business trying to eat breakfast.

But the worst problem of all would almost certainly have been driving home from the rehearsal. What policeman, observing the progress of a car being driven by Toad, would not come to the conclusion that either the driver, or he, was drunk? It hardly seems part of the training schedule to stop a car and ask a Toad to take a breathalyser test For the record: the play was produced with the actors wearing head and eye masks only.