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 Cicala
Players in The Love Birds by Basil Thomas
Staged:
16-17 November 1961 at the Twentieth Century Theatre London
 Having staged three productions at once in May 1961,
the Cicala Players return triumphant in November of the same year with their
interpretation of “The Love Birds” by Basil Thomas. Following in the footsteps of no lesser
star than Dora Bryan, who has appeared on television playing a character from
the play, the cast and crew of The Love Birds set to work to reproduce this
sparkling comedy amongst whose directions is the requirement for the offstage
voice of a budgerigar(!?) It is true
to say that in ALL aspects of song and dance, none of Martins Bank’s groups
of singers actors and dancers ever shies away from giving at least 150% of
themselves to each and every production.
The Cicala Players in particular are faced with a recurring problem in
London of being able to find an affordable theatre to enable break-even or at
least a small profit. On this occasion, the Twentieth Century Theatre in
Notting Hill is the venue, but the Chanticleer Theatre in Gloucester Road
often comes to the rescue, providing a home to several of the group’s
productions down the years. For a verdict on The Love Birds, we turn as ever
to Martins Bank Magazine, who can always be relied upon for what we might
call an honest (sometimes brutally so) critique…
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 For their autumn production at the Twentieth
Century Theatre, the Players presented "The Lovebirds", by Basil
Thomas, on November 16th and 17th. Having seen an excerpt of this play on
television, when Dora Bryan played one of the leading roles in her
inimitable manner, we are delighted to be able to strike one play off that
long list of unsolved T.V. extracts. Comedy, as we have said before, is a
particularly difficult type of play to put over, depending as it does on
good timing and the use of the head rather than the heart, and the Players
had a good shot at it. Two people in particular are to be congratulated on
their performances—Reg Rowlands who played Bertie
Skidmore and John Collins, the off-stage voice of Cecil, the budgerigar.
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Reg Rowlands, Pamela Bodell, Clive Hamilton, Alan Apps
Peter J Henty and Brenda Sanderson
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Bertie and his wife, Julie, return from their
honeymoon to find that Aunt Dollie has given them a budgerigar as a wedding
present and the fun really starts when the so-called 'lovebird' turns out
to be the reincarnated first husband of Bertie's wife, whose marriage had
not been a happy one.
Reg appeared very much at ease in his part as the slick
but likeable husband, and extracted the maximum amount of humour from every
situation and particularly from the interchanges with Cecil when the two
'husbands' are left on their own.
The whole action of the play centred on him and he
was a tower of strength in the part. John Collins very cleverly
impersonated the voice of the diabolical bird, whose revelations are
designed thoroughly to upset the happy home. His timing was excellent, a
difficult thing when most of the stage is out of sight.
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And
here we are delighted to place on record that the part of the budgerigar
was played by a member of the staff also, having been bred by V. Keppey, a
messenger at Cocks Biddulph.On the night of our visit, the bird decided he
had had enough of that chap off stage saying stupid things on his behalf.
He thought he would 'spread his wings' and steal some of the limelight too,
so he escaped from his cage and proceeded to fly to each member of the cast
in turn: it was some time before he was returned safely behind bars, the
play being brought to a standstill in the meantime.
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No
one can deny he gave a very exciting performance for his debut and we feel he
now deserves to become a fully-fledged member of the Cicala Players. Pamela
Bodell was a most attractive Julie and if at times she did not appear quite
as upset as one would expect a young bride to be when she discovers her
husband having a brainstorm (due to the wiles of Cecil), she made up for it
by her obvious enjoyment of the part and her complete naturalness. Fay, her
younger sister, was played by Dorothy Elgar who, after some initial
nervousness, gave a very competent and convincing performance. Mignonne
Paice and Clive Hamilton were the mother and father of the two girls.
Played with some restraint, they were typical of tactful and tolerant
parents thinking only of their children's happiness.
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Jacqueline Kenvin and Pamela Bodell
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Ian Andrews Reg Rowlands Dorothy Elgar and Mignonne
Paice
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Aunt
Dollie, an eccentric lady and the cause of all the trouble, was well
characterised by Rosina O'Brien; as also was Fay's young boy friend, played
by lan Andrews, who managed to maintain his stutter throughout. As the
doctor who also becomes a victim of Cecil's abuse when he is called in to
attend Bertie, Peter J. Henty gave a lively and amusing performance, and
the part of the professor, who has to examine this phenomenal bird, was
played with suitable eccentricity by Alan Apps. Jacqueline Kenvin's
portrayal of the worldly Lil, ex-girl-friend of Bertie, was very good and
we wished her part had not been so small. The role of Natasha, played by
Brenda Sanderson, was also short and sweet. Dai Armstrong was the new
producer, and she told us how much she had enjoyed working with the cast.
Producers are not easy to find and we are grateful to her for her
assistance and to the many members of the Society who help with these
productions.
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We know that this
Company is
faced with considerable difficulties in putting on a Show at all, due to
travelling distances and the finding of a suitable theatre, and it is a
great credit to them that they continue to maintain their enthusiasm and
their support and we wish them much success with their production at the
Chanticleer Theatre on 9th, 10th and 11th May next year.
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 M
Sep3M
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