PRINCESS IDA, Manor House O.S. The Institute, Central Square, Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, 3 May 1979.

This production of Ida was a rather average standard "trad" production by a smallish Society in a not very good hall. The orchestra, conducted by Paul Bateman, were quite adequate; the production, by John Welch, seemed to be keeping strictly to the book, and was totally unimaginative. Actors walked in, said their lines, and walked off again, waving their arms in time to the music; but it was impeccably rehearsed, and for a "trad" production worked well. None of the cast seemed to know their lines and made frequent errors, which they made little attempt to cover up. Hildebrand (Ian Boutall) had no acting sensitivity, and stood too much with his hands on his hips. His performance was overloaded with meaningless moves and gestures. Hilarion (Trevor Mills) was dreadful. He had a coarse singing voice, and delivered in a tone more fitting to a plumber's mate than to a Prince. His wobble was disconcerting. Cyril (Martin Hart) started off well and in Act 1 was quite good, though he had an annoying habit of bending and bobbing his head about. In Act 2, he developed an ingratiating, overacted manner: throughout this act, he sang consistently off-key. Florian (Stephen Skinner) was the best of the men. Although his vowels were somewhat unpleasing on the ear, he had an easy, relaxed stage manner, and he gave charm to this rather thankless part. Everything that he did was unobtrusive, yet perfectly natural, and he is an actor I hope to see more of. Gama (David Matthews ) never really got to grips with his part or show a real understanding of it. His first song was much too rushed (and incidentally, he said "aesthetic" instead of "aesetic"). He was a mild man, there were no variations in his delivery and certainly no climaxes. Arac (Paul Boyce) had basically a good voice, but for some reason he cut off all his long notes in the first song, and in "fighting is our trade" reduced the number to chaos by simply not knowing it. In the disrobing song he seemed to be singing off the roof of his mouth. Guron (David Rose) and Scynthius (David Diamond) gave good support, though the former tended to fidget his eyebrows which was a trifle distracting. Ida (Estelle Sharabany) had very bad diction, but she had an impressive voice of large size and "O Goddess Wise" was the first really good thing of the evening in spite of the fact that she seemed to be trying to get ahead of the orchestra. She was rather pettish, and seemed to lack the dignity necessary for this part. Lady Blanche (Anne McDowell) was a young Blanche, which was an interesting idea, to which I was initially disposed to give favourable consideration, but it soon became evident that she was much too young to be Melissa's mother. Her dialogue was very stilted and amateurish; she had a goodish voice, but no idea how to sing. The bottom notes of the role were impossible for her. She had an annoying habit of standing with her hands clasped together when singing, and marking time with her fingers, this (as with the entry of the soldiers at the end of Act 2) was funny for all the wrong reasons. She was about a bar and a half late with "Hunger, I beg to state”. Deborah Bindra (Psyche) was far and away the best of the cast, she had charm, fascination, and good looks in abundance, combined with a sweet voice. With more understanding and firmer production, I suspect she could be a performer of outstanding ability, for it seemed to me there were occasions when she was careless or was capable of much better than she was actually giving. Melissa (Carolyn Killen) seemed to be a bundle of nerves, and gave a non-performance. MICHAEL WALTERS

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