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 Martins
Bank Society of the Arts – Drama Section in: Drama at Childwell bottom by
Bill Brookes
Staged:
12 December 1946 in the little theatre at Head Office Water Street Liverpool
The Second World War is obviously still fresh in the mind in
1946, when Martins Bank Staff Member Bill Brookes pens a one-act comedy about
an amateur dramatic group capturing a German Airman, whilst trying to
research the witches’ scene from Shakepeare’s MacBeth. It’s just the sort of thing you wish had
been made into a film or television drama, and perhaps it is not too late to
do this, provided the script still exists somewhere! On the same night at the little theatre at
Head Office, the group also presented “The Sixth Hour” a heavy religious
piece, so the comedy offered by the villagers and their escapades taking a
German prisoner must have offered much needed relief. The tiny theatre in the
basement of 4 Water Street was crammed with an audience of one hundred and
twenty people, which at that time was the largest audience yet experiences by
the players, and included one of the top brass of the Bank and his
family. It seems the antics of the
characters in Drama at Childwell Bottom were agreat opportunity for
individual group members to really get their acting teeth into, and Martins
Bank Magazine seems on the whole to be very pleased with the whole thing…
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 This was an
original comedy by Bill Brookes, of Central branch. The plot is centred
round the capture of a Nazi airman by the cast of a village amateur
dramatic society, and much of the humour lay in the odd assembly of village
types and the eminently unsuitable roles allotted to them for their
rehearsal of a scene from “ Macbeth.” John Willis gave a most convincing
performance as the Rev. Horace Cartwright, and evinced no more interest
than was seemly in the attractive schoolmistress, played by Kathleen Bone
(Castle Street branch).
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Kathleen Bone, Marjorie Balshaw, Mrs. Wall
Jones, John Willis, Barbara Sharp,
Barbara Phillips, Barbara Griffith, Norman Leach, Kenneth
Learoyd and Alec Ellis.
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The
witches’ scene was rehearsed to the accompaniment of various interruptions
of an upsetting nature supplied by A. R. Ellis as the village ancient,
while Mrs. Blake, played by Barbara Sharp (Trustee Dept., Head Office),
caused further confusion by bringing in tea at the wrong time. The
proceedings were finally held up by the desperate German airman, Kenneth
Learoyd (Foreign branch), who was dramatically captured by that worthy
member of the Home Guard, Herbert Blake, played by Norman Leach (Chief
Accountant’s Dept., Head Office). Marjorie Balshaw as the lisping witch
interpreted the part with originality which was wholly successful. A word
of special praise is due to Barbara Phillips (East branch), for her
realistic performance of the sniffing, penny-novelette-reading school girl.
Clever performances were also given by Mrs. Hylda Wall Jones, whom we would
like to see next time in a sugary part for a change, and Barbara Griffith
(Foreign branch), whose portrayal of the panic-stricken spinster left
nothing to the imagination.
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