THE MIKADO, Hamilton G&S Society (Scotland).

Unfortunately, after singing the Wandering Minstrel, Billy Hillan was taken suddenly ill and his place had to be taken by a chorister, libretto in hand throughout the rest of the show. However the rest of the cast did an heroic job of playing on, and finished the evening to cheers from the largely young audience. Iain McKillop as Ko-Ko scored a personal success, although producer and MD Peter Mooney lacked imagination as to what comedy business could be performed. McKillop is a remarkably agile young man who, during brief moments of nimble dancing, showed a good sense of comedy, but during "Here's a how-de-do" he just danced across the stage and no encores were given. However, his acting, diction and use of the stage were better than average and, with better production, this young man could become a likeable principal comedian. Also worth a mention was David Duncan's Mikado whose bellowing laugh had one or two of the younger children in the audience screaming. William Rae's Pooh-Bah was suitably pompous and well-padded, the Three Little Maids routine and chorus movement livened up the proceedings, and Martha Ellict as Katisha looked impressive and sang very well, although she isn't a full contralto. LINDA WOOD

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