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Betty Blue Eyes

Author: Hazel Hole

Information

Date
29th May 2019
Society
Brightlingsea Musical Theatre Group
Venue
Brightlingsea Community Centre
Type of Production
Musical
Director
Scott Cavill
Musical Director
Francis Garland
Choreographer
Zoe Farrelly
Producer
Hector Moyes

This was a musical comedy taking place in post war 1947 when austerity, high unemployment and rationing, not to mention corruption by officials were rampant in Britain. The country was looking forward to the approaching royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip and the local officials are busy planning a grand banquet to celebrate the occasion. Into this scenario comes Betty the Pig who is being reared illegally to provide this banquet.

The opening was lively with some very good routines and featured the company with Joyce, the chiropodist’s wife. In fact the plot focussed on the earnest and anxious chiropodist, Gilbert (played by Kieran Foreman) and his wife, Joyce (played by Jayne Meek) who was very pushy and a would be social climber. They were both very well cast and really complemented each other and I particularly enjoyed their rendering of ‘A Place on the Parade’. Cat Diver, as Mother Dear, acted out this role so well with her stooped figure, walking stick and some amazing antics and facial expressions which drew laughter from the audience. Martin Goulding, as Dr James Swaby, Scott Cavill, as Henry Allardyce and Jeff Graham as Frances Lockwood, were the local dignitaries played with great style. These three sang ‘A Private Function’ with gusto and enthusiasm and it sounded good ! Gregg Weaver, as the meat Inspecter Wormold, was suitably pompous and domineering in his relentless pursuit of residents breaching the regulations and he was very credible in this role.

There was a large cast of chorus and actors playing small but vital roles which complemented the script and many of these were playing two roles which is often quite difficult to achieve so well done to all the cast. Ava Foster , as the young Veronica, the daughter of the Allardyces, was very convincing and I must also mention Katie Thomas who “handled” Betty the pig (a very credible puppet) on stage whilst kneeling and crouching in apparent uncomfortable positions !

Steal the Pig” was a rousing end to Act One, involving all the company and Act Two finished with “Goodbye Austerity Britain”, a most fitting ending.

Although the songs were not particularly well known, without exception they formed an integral part of the script and the singing from this group was excellent.

The small, but accomplished band, under the skills of Musical Director, Francis Garland, created the right volume and support for the singers and really added greatly to the production. Their rendering of the Overture and Entr’acte was impressive.

Dancing and movement on stage was well choreographed by Zoe Farrelly who managed to showcase those with real dancing ability whilst producing good movements for the company as a whole.

The set was simple but very interchangeable and effective, with a great number of people from the cast involved in construction and painting. The backstage crew, led by Stage Manager Bob Weaver, worked well, with swift and fairly unobtrusive movement of props and furniture on and off stage. Sound quality was very good with some excellent sound effects and lighting was used to compliment the set. Costumes, sourced by the cast, were colourful and relevant to the period.

Director Scott Cavill, assisted by Producer Hector Moyes will rightly be very pleased with this production and I understand that this is Scott’s debut as Director. I hope to see more of his work in the future.

I had the opportunity to talk about the production with Hector Moyes (who is also the Chair of the group and played in the band) during the interval

I congratulate everyone involved in any way with this production, which I enjoyed enormously. Well done everyone.

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