THIS show was a delight. It is an old-fashioned musical: feel-good, no hidden message and gloriously politically incorrect. The plot is thin but the songs, humour and larger than life characters carry it along.
The two leads were nicely balanced. Lynn Manderston (Annie) combined the rough tough gun-slinging backwoodswoman with the dreamy-eyed weak-kneed lovebird to perfection. Campbell MacNeil (Frank Butler) always impresses. We know he is a comic talent but here his part demanded a sort of heroic petulant romanticism and that is what he gave us – precisely.
This pair can sing too; their duet “An Old Fashioned Wedding” was very well done. They were admirably supported by Bob Lockwood, who lit up the stage as the rollicking travelling showman, Charlie Davenport, and the deservedly popular Maureen Gillie who once again strutted her stuff as the put-upon Dolly Tate.
One of the pleasures of an amateur show is to glimpse the hidden talents of folk you thought you knew well. Raymond Williams (Mac and others) and George Kay (Foster Wilson and others) chipped in strong cameo roles, as did the Indian Squaws (Margery Robinson, Elizabeth Kay, and Mavis Eslor), society hostesses (the squaws plus Caroline Wilkinson, Ethne Turnbull and Barbara Petit), and the railcar porters (strays from the Podlies and Parish Church Choir: George Dempster, Sid Sinclair, Dixie Scott, Bruce Thompson and Dave Jones.) And didn’t they enjoy being cowboys and dandies at the ball!
It is a credit to costumes, make-up and hair styling (Linda Thompson, Karen Smith and friends, and Tracy Penman) that Roy Baldwinson looked more like Buffalo Bill than William Cody did, and that Pawnee Bill looked nothing like provost of the town, Donald Duggan
As for Chief Sitting Bull – we have found out at last who Rocky Wilson is: he’s a Red Indian Chief masquerading as a lad from the Shore.
I’ll be disappointed if, the next time I meet him, he isn’t wearing that headdress with all the feathers.
Also delightful (and encouraging for the future) was the blossoming of young talent. From the very start we were charmed by “Little Boys”, Max Rutherford and Ben Nichol.
Then when Annie’s little orphan family appeared (Robie Aitchison, Hannah McLeman, Madeline King, Katie Blatchley) they played it so well that if Annie had put round a collecting tin she would have filled it.
It was a relief to see them bonnie in their new claes at the end. Two other young members, Kerr Scott and Ryan Coates (conductor, porter and footmen) played their unassuming parts just right – creating impressions and adding substance.
When the new school is built I hope they give us a bigger stage. This one is cramped for a show as lavish as this. But the dancers (Erin Lindsay, Kerrie Lindsay, Joelle Lovell, Amy McQueen, Ashley Wilkinson and Eilidh Wilson) and back up singers (Karen Angus, Naomi Duggan, Lauren Hunter, Linda Shardlow, Lilian Smith, Fiona Thorburn) made the most of it and gave us a variety of glittering and graceful spectacles.
Thanks to choreographers, Lilian Smith and Margery Robinson.
The show was presented well. The sets (Border Studios and Alec Birne) were convincing – particularly the railway carriage; the costumes (May Jappy and Utopia, Dundee) were colourful; the placing and movement of the players engaging.
The lighting (James Battison and David Ferris) and sound effects (PFL) were fine, but on occasion the balance between those with personal mikes and those without made for weak choruses.
The staging was slick and unobtrusive. All a credit to the producer (Pauline Grieve) and the backroom staff (John Wilkinson and friends, Moira Gillie (prompt), Leigh Aitchison and Agnes Blackie (props).
The finishing touches to the production were neatly added by Joyce Birne and friends at the front of house and by Joan Blatchley who laid on the publicity, programmes and PR.
Then, of course, there was the band: Margaret Gudgeon (piano), Fred Baxendale and Catherine Sinclair (violins), Ann Sinclair (viola), Dorothy Mutch (flute), Sam Smith-Magee (clarinet), John Sinclair (trumpet), Ted Wheadon (trombone) and Tom Gudgeon (drums).
How good it was to see real folk playing real instruments. And a mixture of folk too, from young to old(er); all under the capable baton of musical director, Margaret Carey.
I’m sure that when Irving Berlin wrote Annie Get Your Gun 60 years ago he had in mind entertainment. If so, that is what we got – by the bucketful. A delight.
