| C
A S T |
| Joey
Wright - retired bookmaker, a satyr |
Robert
Snell |
| Christopher
Penny - painter, a coward |
John
Woodward |
| Major
Tomkins - retired, a bully |
Peter
Beck |
| Mrs
Tomkins - his wife, a shrew |
Eileen
Snell |
| Vivian
- their daughter, a hussy |
Frances
Yunnie |
| Jape
Samuels - of the City, a rogue |
Don
Edwards |
| Harry
Larkcom - his jackal, a cad |
Tony
Armstrong |
| Miss
Kite - unattached, a painted lady |
Ruby
Carter |
| Mrs
percival de hooley - cousing to Sir george Tweedie, Bart.,
a snob |
Susan
Armstrong |
| Stasia
- the slavey,a slut |
Joy
Newbold |
| Mrs
Sharpe - landlady, a cheat |
Vera
Newbold |
| The
Third Floor Back - a passer-by |
Clive
Emsley |
|
| Producer |
Myrtle
Newbury |
| Pianoforte |
Don
Cartwright |
| Stage
Manager |
Derrick
Stoneham and helpers |
| Lighting |
Jeff
Elsom |
| Props |
Bill
Newbold |
| Costume |
Marjorie
Stoneham and helpers |
| Make-up |
Nan
Armitage and helpers |
| Prompt |
Pam
Sellers |
| Front
of House |
Charles
Spencer, Fred Jackson and helpers |
| Publicity |
George
Lowther |
|
| |
| Click
on image to see a larger version |
| |
Return
to Productions page
|
|
29-30th
November and 2nd December 1972 |
Extract
from The Bedfordshire Times by N.J. |
 |
LEFT
to right: John Woodward, Don Edwards, Eileen Sneel,
Ruby Carter, Robert Sneel, Susan Armstrong and Joy Newbold
in a scene from the play.
|
THE
chief constable of Bedfordshire and Luton, Mr. Tony Armstrong,
raided a whisky cupboard at Priory Methodist Church in
Newnham Avenue, Bedford, on Wednesday evening —
and then kissed a serving maid for good measure.
Or to be precise Mr. Armstrong, disguised behind a layer
of greasepaint, performed these dark deeds on stage while
portraying the character Harry Larkcom in the Wesley Players'
production of Jerome K. Jerome's The Passing of the Third
Floor Back.
The play is set in a Bloomsbury boarding house and shows
its age (it's set in 1908) when a character is offered
a room for £2 a week.
|
An
arresting
performance
|
|
It
also shows its age by being a straight morality play with
a Christ-like stranger arriving at the boarding house and
changing the lodgers from sharp backbiters into too-good-to-be-true
types overflowing with piety. In fact Jerome K. Jerome lays
it on so thickly that he seems to have written the play
pla with a trowel instead of a pen.
One of the best performances came from Ruby Carter as a
vain woman who. after meeting the mysterious stranger, predictably
abandons her barbed tongue and rouge in favour of a well-scribbed
face and embroidery. |
Drawing
the- laughs of the evening was Don Edwards as the sly businessman
who acted his role with fine hand-wringing gusto. His "jackal"
was played by Mr. Armstrong.
John Woodward, in real life assistant editor of the Bedford
Record and the Bedfordshire Times, exchanged his green eyeshade
for an artist's cravat in the role of the penniless painter
who finally wins the woman he loves. And suitably awesome
was Clive Emsley as the stranger.
The play had the last of its three performances on Saturday.
NJ. |
|
|
