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THE ARGOSY PLAYERS - LIVERPOOL

 

The Argosy Players in: Fish out of Water by Derek Benfield

Staged: 25 to 27 May 1967 at Crane Theatre Hanover Street Liverpool

If there is one aspect of a Martins Bank production you could expect to “bank on” (forgive the pun) is it the size and loyalty of the audience for each and every production.  However, with the 1967 production of “A Fish out of Water” it would appear that The Argosy Players may just have mis-judged their potential audience, by staging the play during the May Bank Holiday! 

However, as we learn from the article below, printed in the Autumn 1967 edition of Martins Bank Magazine, what was lost by having only a small audience was more than made up for by excellent performances from the players themselves.

Incidentally, Derek Benfield, an actor with a long TV career spanning nine years of “Coronation Street” (Granada 1961-69) “Timeslip” (ATV 1970) to “Hetty Wainthropp Investigates” (BBC 1996-98) was also a prolific playwright, and “Fish out of Water” is one of fifteen plays he wrote for the stage. He died in 2009.

1953 01.jpgIt was perhaps more with curiosity than eager anticipation that we took our seats at the Crane Theatre, Liverpool, on May 25 for the first of the three nights' showing of Fish Out of Water by Derek Benfield, presented by the Argosy Players. After all, only five weeks' rehearsals and several of the cast an unknown quantity . . .  That it was the spring bank holiday that week-end was reflected in the unfortunate lack of spectators, a select band who made up for their scanty numbers by their enthusiastic reception of what turned out to be a most entertaining and amusing pro­duction. 

The play opened with Philip Brayshaw and Annette Gilroy as a brigadier and his 'refined' wife in an hotel in sun-drenched Italy: he somewhat henpecked, she caustic and aloof, both snobbish and rather bored, Moira Lightbound, appearing as the maid Marisa, managed her Italian accent well: she came over as a sympathetic yet vivacious character.

Image © Martins Bank Archive Collections

Left to Right: Hilary Gray, Valerie Parish, Terry Mudd, Annette Gilroy, David Powell, Philip Brayshaw, Moira Lightbound, Michael Lucas.

Marion McQuaid was ill and missed the rehearsal where the photograph was taken

Image © Martins Bank Archive Collections

Liverpool Echo 25 May 1967

One did wish, however, that producer Frank Warburton had been able to devise something for her to do besides moving a pile of magazines from one spot to another at repeated intervals. Irrupting into the calm of the afternoon siesta, Valerie Parish took the part of Agatha, a loud, brash, Cockney widow ready to take charge of her cringing fellow-guests, barring their escape routes and brow-beating them into jolly games of cricket on the beach in the heat of the Italian sun. They were on holiday to enjoy themselves and she was determined that they should do so, if it killed her. This was the dominating character of the play and Valerie gave an outstanding performance which just couldn't be faulted. Agatha's down-trodden sister Fiona, an excellent portrayal by Hilary Gray wearing glasses and with hair scraped back in a bun, looked the absolute antithesis of Agatha. Timid, pessimistic, completely at a loss in such an environment, she wished herself at her usual hotel in Eastcliffe where at least the food was eatable. Another smash-hit performance was given by Michael Lucas as an exhausted courier wilting under the strain of caring for 'the two old bags' in his charge.

One felt sym­pathy for him, and an ex-courier in the audience asserted that his experiences were not at all exaggerated. When Fiona 'came over queer' she man­aged to escape from Agatha's domination for a quiet paddle in the sea with Jack, another guest. David Powell played this character with the suitably nervous manner of a fussy bank clerk, never a halfpenny wrong in his cash during his twenty years at the bank, who had become separated from his coach party. However, his encounter with Fiona provided consolation and by the end of the play they seemed bound for the altar in spite of Fiona's earlier advocacy of the advantages of spinsterhood. 

 

The theme of the subplot was a predilec­tion by Dora (Marion McQuaid), a bus conductress from Yorkshire, for Len (Terry Mudd), a cocksure Cockney ready for romance, but not with Dora. However, after his advances towards Marisa were repulsed--'! have four brothers, very beeg and very strrong'—he seemed prepared to settle for Dora when she appeared in gla­morous guise for the fiesta.  It was not a complicated or sophisticated play, but plenty of witty lines, good acting and production ensured an entertaining evening for those who were able to be present.

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