No 6 -- April 1977 Edited by Michael Walters
IMPERIAL COLL.O.S., The Zoo and The Pirates of Penzance, Budleigh Salterton, 29-30 July 1976.
I attended two performances of this double bill, Friday and Saturday of the first week. Friday was good, though all the Company were bitterly disappointed by it; when I saw the Saturday performance I knew why - truly a transformation of a remarkable kind. A very large part of the credit for the magnificence of Saturday's performance must go to the conductor, Michael Withers, who cast a spell over the house that night with the love, care and passion with which he guided the orchestra. His tempi were fast on the whole, comparable in speed to Robin White's, but whereas with Robin the fast sections often sounded merely rushed, with Michael speed seemed to produce an almost Tschaikowskian passion and intensity. Both productions were superb in their way, though different. Roger Woodward's whimsically idiosyncratic production of The Zoo (epitomised by his own fleeting appearance as the sea-lion keeper - doing a Hitchcock here I fancy!) convinced me at last that the piece really is fun in spite of the libretto. The production had been given one previous performance in the Great Hall, Imperial College, a few months previously, and it was on the whole similar. There was one change of cast (Carboy). The production whipped along with tremendous gusto - but with natural comedians like Pete Totterdell in the front line of the chorus it could hardly have done otherwise, and the addition of the "lost" song for Letitia, with new words by Roger Woodward, and a superb "cod" cadenza, almost brought the house down. One point I noticed was that Eliza's "I go, I fly" seemed to work less well here than it had before owing to the smaller available space. The Zoo is not a great piece but in IC's hands it came truly alive, as I had not seen it do before; one could believe that it was a new show being performed for the first time, and that the cast were creating their respective roles. Richard Wilson (Carboy) was doing his first reasonable sized part, something for which I have been waiting for many years. He imbued the part with a delightful quaintness. Tim Johnson played the part at the Great Hall performance, and although he has a bigger and firmer voice, Richard gave more of a performance. However, the performance of the evening was Roger Nicholls as the Duke of Islington. His exuberance was a joy to behold, and his natural sense of comedy stood him in good stead in the fainting scene and in the way he chucked himself around the stage, which was really excruciatingly funny. His entrance as the Duke after the removal of disguise was also tremendous - he seemed to have the knack of just walking onto the stage and. making the audience eat out of his hand without doing anything. Delith Brook (Letitia) was in superb voice, and gave a brilliant rendering of the "lost" song. She had grace, charm and style, which I found quite irresistible. Denise Clark (Eliza) was good, but not as good as some of the others, though admittedly she is not helped by having some of the least interesting music to sing. Grinder is not much of a part, but to John Barratt's credit he got about as much out of it as one could; a solid, reliable performance this was (as also was his Samuel), by someone who, I felt, could always be relied upon to do any part justice.
Pirates was altogether more intense and dramatic. Peter Mills (changing his role of performer for that of Producer) seemed to be relying more on passion and deep emotion, and sensibly kept movement down to the minimum at the peak emotional moments so that when he let himself go - as in the brilliantly humorous setting of "Softly sighing" there was all the more impact. I was particularly impressed with the way the Fred-Mabel love duet in Act 2 was handled, the passionate hopelessness of the lovers' situation was brought out to the full and became quite heartrending - so often this scene can become prissy or twee. It says much for the producer, MD, and singers, that they managed to create such an aura of tension that the audience was not tempted to violate the flow and continuity of the music by applauding "Ah leave me not to Pine". The moment where Frederic tried to kiss Mabel's hands in parting and she restrained him (I think it was just before "Stay Frederic stay") was particularly beautiful. Another delightful moment was the bringing on of the Doctor of Divinity at the end of Act. 1, something I cannot remember ever having seen before - though, thinking it over it seems surprising if no-one had ever thought of doing it. The antics of the Pirates during the opening chorus, pushing each other on and off the plank, seemed a trifle fussy and unnecessary. Steve Bodle as the deaf pirate was rather endearing, but I wished that he could have been a little less vague and not so much in the background. Several times he did things which I missed because the centre of action was focused elsewhere. Steve seems to have a real talent for eccentric, elderly characterisation, which has not been really exploited. Roger Woodward made an excellent General, taking the patter-song with superb crispness and speed and the send-up of "Softly sighing" with mock-lyrical actions for the police, removed any necessity for this number to be sung lyrically. Roger's characterisation was, as usual, impeccable. One particularly delightful moment was when captured by the Pirates in Act 2, the General automatically went to draw his sword, only to find there was no sword since he was in his dressing gown. David Pollard, changing his role of conductor for performer, gave a very interesting and unusual interpretation of the Pirate King. He was rather too diffident to have become a leader of men by force, so he must have been the highest-ranking of them when they were all noblemen. The interpretation worked well in the Gilbertian context though; as the most reluctant leader of the reluctant pirates he seemed to be a perfect projection of his progenitor, Captain Bang in Our Island Home. His lightweight acting made for a delightfully whimsical interpretation, which I, saturated by watching hundreds of burly, blustering PKs, found very refreshing. The way he delivered "For some ridiculous reason'' with spoken asides, was a masterpiece. Max Taylor scored his greatest triumph as Frederic, in spite of not being vocally the sort of Frederic one expects. He was at his best in the intense scenes where he could open his throat and. pour out his passion; on both nights I was there the duet with Ruth was quite electric, and the passion and intensity of the love scene with Mabel brought tears into my eyes. He was, perhaps, a little less happy in the lighter lyrical moments. Dick Stockton made the Sergeant of Police into a typical country "bobby", slow-witted and slow moving, well meaning but ineffective. His eyes, however, were capable of registering quick changes of feeling. It was a low-key, restrained and loveable performance, and such a change from the usual exuberant overacted SPs one so often sees. Teresa Quinn was an exquisitely beautiful Mabel, what her voice might lack in volume it more than made up for in delicacy and purity of tone. "Poor wandering one" was a joy - the row of top notes all perfectly placed, glowed like a necklace of pearls. And last, but certainly not least, Deborah Kemp was just so utterly "right" as Ruth, that one wonders what one can possibly say. She is about the only person I can think of who can make Ruth's rather dull opening song sound really interesting and exciting. MICHAEL WALTERS
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