This turned out to be rather a nonevent, the Musical Director, Graham Beebee, took proceedings at a painfully slow pace. The Overture was pedantic, as indeed was the conductor's style, but at least he kept things together and prevented any serious mishaps. The scenery looked very familiar, I have seen it in Sorcerer productions elsewhere. It is ugly scenery, and the bits of brick wall downstage left looked like the entrance to the gent's loo. The production varied between the uninspired and the fussy. There was a lot of senseless brushing down and titivating of the men during the opening chorus. After Constance had begun her first aria, the chorus started to shuffle off in a very distracting way. Michael Heyland's now famous "freezing" poses in the MarmadukeSangazure duet were tedious, and ineptly done. I doubt if anybody in the audience saw the point. For the invocation there were five young, busty, blowsy hags. Sir Marmaduke's feast was a meager affair with a single salver of cakes, and it was very noticeable that nobody ate anything at all. For Act 2 the five hags were transformed into dancing servant girls. The one really memorable thing about the production was the use of a real trap door for Wells' final exit, and very impressive it was too, the first time I have ever seen a trap door used in Sorcerer. Mrs. Partlett (Janet Brooker) had no voice or stage presence, but she looked the part. Constance (Clare Kelly) had a very pretty voice, but small, and she had trouble with top notes. Dr. Daly (John Connor) couldn't reach the bottom notes and had a rather monotonously ingratiating manner. He overacted woefully when he spoke, and didn't act when he wasn't speaking. The Recitation was horribly overdone. Sir M (Alan Hicks) looked like Robert Morley and played like a take off of him. His acting was very good, but he had a strange singing voice and had great difficulty forming some notes. I can't remember having heard a singer with such peculiar vocal production. Lady S (Frankie Higgins) was dreadful. She had no voice, no idea how to act and couldn't stay in time. Hercules (Vaughan Prosser) was a decrepit, whitehaired servant who was the funniest thing in the show. Alexis (Steve Chaytow) did his best, but had obviously had little help from the producer. He tied himself in knots in his first speech, but did manage to get out of it. Why on earth did he say “True, I am ready" (to die) with such obvious glee? Aline (Catherine McCarthy) sang prettily in spite of having had a throat infection. Mr. Wells (Robin Aldworth) relied too much on style of delivery, and paid scant attention to the meaning of the words. He used far too many gestures. I am not sure that he did not sing Alexis's line at the end of "lights her kitchen fire”. MICHAEL WALTERS

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