THE YEOMEN OF THE GUARD, Glasgow University Cecilian Society, Eastwood Theatre. 19 September 1978.

This was only the third time that I had seen Yeomen. The Eastwood Theatre's stage is small, and, with the set in, cramped and reduced the chorus considerably. Broadly speaking, the young company was well rehearsed, the music well played and the show went without a visible hitch except when Phoebe was unable to put the keys back on Shadbolt's belt and had to lay them down on a nearby barrel. Shadbolt covered it up beautifully by "noticing" them; picking them up with a scratch of the head and walking off with them in his hand. Some of the principal men had funny ideas about how a cockney accent sounded, but their diction was unimpaired. Point (Robert Barr) is unfortunate enough to suffer from a deformity which he succeeds in making his audience forget about, and, in fact, gained more sympathy for Point because of it. Apart from the odd fluffed line he put in an energetic performance. At the end he merely kissed Elsie's wedding dress, turned away and sat down in despair no "falling insensible at her feet". Shadbolt (John Harkness) was a tall young man who made Shadbolt a shambling, idiotic brute of a man that made one feel sorry for Phoebe having to agree to marry him to buy his silence. Phoebe (Christine Jukes) was well interpreted and had an excellent singing voice as had Rosemary Cowie's Elsie and Irene Wilson's Dame Carruthers. Graham Addison's Fairfax was a tall, strong and handsome, a definite "catch" for a susceptible young lady. His teasing "All thoughts of Leonard Meryll set aside" made me consider Fairfax a thorough cad. LINDA WOOD

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