ENTERTAINMENT BY PUPILS

Southland Times, Issue 23378, 9 December 1937, Page 8

ENTERTAINMENT BY PUPILS

SOUTHLAND GIRLS’ HIGH SCHOOL

A. pleasing programme, principally dramatic but exceptionally well balanced, was presented by pupils of the Southland Girls’ High School at the school last evening. The programme comprised a perfect blend of the two essential ingredients of good entertainment—comedy and drama—and a touch of tragedy was added in the play, “Campbell of Kilmohr.” The numbers were all well received by a most appreciative audience.

The entertainment was made up of four numbers, a choral play, two scenes from “Alice In Wonderland,” a Shakespearean scene and the Highland play “Campbell of Kilmohr.” The girls spoke their lines with complete confidence and the principals of the last number showed a histrionic ability quite promising for such youthful players. The choral play, something apparently new in elocutionary entertainment, was a recitation of Matthew Arnold’s “The Forsaken Merman.” In this girls of Forms 4A and 4B took part, the characters in the poem being represented by groups of girls who alternately recited the lines. Two scenes from “Alice In Wonderland” were acted by the following cast:—Scene I.—Alice, Nola Legget; Humpty-Dumpty, Thelma Stevenson. Scene 2.—Tweedledum, Peggy Bissett; Tweedledee, Mary McMillan. A scene from Shakespeare’s delightful comedy “As You Like It” followed, capably acted by pupils. The principal part of the programme was the play “Campbell of Kilmohr,” a tragedy-drama of the days of the Stuart rising in 1745. The scene of the play was the highlands of Scotland in the winter of 1746. George II was King of England but in Scotland many people believed that their right king was Charles Edward Stuart, grandson of James 11. He had landed in Scotland in July 1745, gathered his Highland supporters, and, after first winning and then losing a battle, had become a fugitive with a reward of £30,000 offering for his capture Very promising performances were given by the girls in the cast:—Campbell of Kilmohr, Ailsa McLean; Mary Stewart, Evelyn Cameron; Dugald (a son), Joan Luker; Morag Cameron, Pat Snow; James McKenzie, Isobel Brown; Captain Sandman, Winifred Gerrard; soldiers, Anne Donaldson, Margaret Fredric and Eirlys Hargest. The players were dressed in the costumes of the period.