And ‘A Bit on the Side’

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32705, 7 September 1971, Page 10

And ‘A Bit on the Side’

Merely Players, the Christchurch troupe which has produced the successful revues, “Rhododendron is a 12let te r Word” and “Pieces of Cod” in the last couple of years, is at it again.

This time the revue, which will open in the Ngaio Marsh Theatre next week, is entitled “A Bit on the Side”—and the bits and pieces include cucumbers, sexual perversion, police brutality, Prince Charles, true love, drunken drivers, the Prime Minister, the Arab-Israeli war, adultery, Gil Dech, Mr T. E. Skinner, neo-Nazism in health camps, the hobbies of All Blacks, and the low incidence of feathery whales. All the sketches have, as usual, been written by members of the cast— John Reid, Stephen Erber, Chris McVeigh, Jim Wright, Alan Grant, David Hindin, Mattie Wall, Mary Rushton, Hugh Canard, and David Palmer.

The direction is by John Reid, the music by Mary Rushton and Hugh Canard, and the stage direction and lighting by David Palmer.

The group hopes that its first night next Monday will be a charity performance, with the Commonwealth Games Association as the beneficiary, but this has not yet been confirmed. Ordinary public performances will begin next Tuesday, and will run until Saturday, September 18.