When we were Young (er) Cabaret Evening

It was a welcome return to Swaffham Players new production at Swaffham Conservative Club, being such a small venue, it is always a friendly, cosy atmosphere, with a supportive audience. It was also nice to see that Swaffham Players were still active if only in a small way.

This was an evening of, mainly, songs from the 60’and 70’s, here I thought, oh I won’t know many of these because, although I came into my teenage years in the mid to late 60’s we didn’t really listen to pop music, or much music at home. Apart from Music while you work, 2-way Family Favourites Down your Way and similar. I was therefore pleased as the evening progressed that I did know nearly all the songs although I tended to know just the choruses of some of them.

There was a good cross-section of styles, unfortunately as I only had a list of performers and not a list of songs it is difficult to attribute vocalists to songs. Stuart Travis, director with his deep voice opened the evening. The songs were interspersed with members of the group giving funny little sketches based on chewing gum stuck to a bench, these were performed in mime and went down very well with the audience.

Early in the evening we had a very energetic dance routine by Pan’s People now re-named as Pan’s Pensioners, Roger Bilverstone and Brian Hubbard gave us an entertaining sketch, well performed to much laughter. At opposite ends of the age spectrum, we had Maureen Silver and Selina Bhantoo giving us songs to live and pre-recorded music. There were one or two little hitches with technology and the occasional forgotten words

Swaffham Players are very fortunate in having the excellent Richard Winch as musical director who not only accompanied the singers but also give us some excellent performances particularly his rendition of ‘Delilah’.

The whole ensemble were suitably dressed for the period and used the necessary props and additions to costumes as required. Hats, puppet, coats, moustache a full and ‘heavy’ shopping bag!

This was an enjoyable evening and supported enthusiastically by the audience, I wish you well for the foreseeable future.

 

 

 

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