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 The
Cicala Players in Your Obedient Servant by Diana Morgan
Staged: 6 to 8 November 1963 at the Chanticleer Theatre
Gloucester Road London
 On form once
more, the Cicala players perform to a packed house in November 1963 with
their production of “Your Obedient Servant”. Martins Bank Magazine seems
thrilled that the show was effectively sold out, and lavishes praise on one
actor in particular - promising newcomer Christopher Norman-Butler who once
again takes on a complex and difficult to play character, and makes it look
as though he has been acting all his life.
It is also interesting to note that for once, the people working
behind the scenes have special mention in one of these reviews, because as
any set of modern-day TV end-credits will confirm, the show cannot run
without those who perform the technical, production, administration and
umpteen other off-stage roles. They
won’t know this quite yet, but this is the penultimate offering from the
Cicala players, they will stage one more play in 1965, and nothing more is
listed in their name from then up to the merger with Barclays…
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 Anyone who
believes that those who go in for amateur theatricals do so for their own
amusement and then have to bully their friends to come and watch, will have
to think again. The latest production by the Cicala Players at the
Chanticleer Theatre from November 6th to 8th was ‘Your Obedient Servant',
and it had a cast of six. Nineteen other people, apart from the producer,
rang bells off-stage, worked the lights, moved scenery and props, sold
tickets and programmes, managed the show, or provided refreshments,
publicity and properties. Thus, twenty people enabled six to face the
footlights and their reward must surely have been the reception their show
earned on the first night. Incidentally, apart from a handful of empty
seats that night, the show was sold out. It must have been tremendously
encouraging.
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The plot of Miss
Diana Morgan’s comedy is simple enough: Mrs Pemberton desperately needs
domestic help and, surprisingly, a man arrives from an agency, stays,
becomes invaluable and, of course, as Mrs Pemberton is attractive if
featherbrained, one fairly soon realizes what is going to happen. The
success of the play relies not only on the humour of the lines and the
situations but particularly on the performances of the man-servant Charles
and Mrs Pemberton herself Two of the characters have what may be termed
‘necessary’ roles- Mrs Pemberton's mother-in-law played with a sure touch
and most effectively by Betty Evans, and Mrs Pemberton's persistent suitor,
played by Reg Rowlands, who won our sympathy in that it was clear he would
get nowhere with the lady because the authoress never intended that he
should. When the loved one says ‘Edward, I can't marry you’, and poor
Edward has to reply 'But we settled all that last week' it is pretty
obvious, isn't it?
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Mignonne Paice, Christopher Norman-Butler
and Reg Rowlands
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Betty Evans
and Ann Winch
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But at least when
the play's run was over Reg Rowlands could work off his frustration on the rugby
field and he may have felt inclined to do so. It was not his fault that he
was overshadowed by the suave, utterly correct performance of
butler-houseman Charles, later revealed as a thwarted actor, and played
with obvious relish by Christopher Norman-Butler It is a magnificent part
in itself but its success depends on the gradual transition from a
seemingly perfect manservant, with only a hint of a dubious past, whose
imaginary weaknesses arouse the protective instincts of Mrs Pemberton's two
daughters, through a dawning realization of his own affection for these two
adoring girls, on to his emergence as the obvious husband for Mrs
Pemberton. He did it all most convincingly and his exchanges with one or
other of the teenage daughters were cleverly and sympathetically handled.
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Ann Winch Christopher Norman-Butler
and Catherine Carney
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Mignonne Paice as
Mrs Pemberton showed a true sense of theatre in her portrayal of a harassed,
generous, but impulsive woman bemused by the march of events. It called for
careful timing and the occasions when she had to hold the audience by
herself were carried off well. Of the two daughters who, incidentally,
nearly stole the show, newcomer Ann Winch, as the seventeen-year-old
Caroline ‘in films on the art side', concealed most effectively a heart of
gold under a brassy, teenage pseudo-sophistication while, in the role of
the fourteen-year-old schoolgirl Julia. Catherine Carney's unaffected,
breathless and ingenuous stage presence must have made many parents in the
audience want to take her home for their own children to play with. Mr Alan
Wilson, a professional producer, did a wonderful job with Miss Morgan's
very amusing play, ably assisted by four who know about acting and two
youngsters who have mastered it with commendable speed. The Cicala Players
are sometimes limited by the lack of a suitable theatre but more by a
shortage of male actors or would-be actors. We cannot help them with their
theatre but any male extroverts in the London District who are sick of
watching television are recommended to try their hand. Do-it-yourself, as
demonstrated at the Chanticleer Theatre, is very obviously much more fun.
And you don't have to drag people to watch particularly if they too can
enjoy themselves.
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 M
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