Haul for the Shore

Reviews and Cuttings

Wednesday, 9 November 1955

Unlucky Friday

Comedy comes to South Brent to this evening for an interrupted run of three days. The interruption is on Friday, when the mobile cinema makes its weekly visit to the church hall. But the local amateurs are used to do that.

Secretary Mrs Joan Deedes, welcoming me to Palston Farm, South Brent, on a duck’s delight of an evening, told me it's one of the company’s regular headaches. A positive migraine. Scenery has to be dismantled after Thursday's show, and re-erected Saturday morning.

There is no getting around it. Early -in-the-week shows are bad box office. They know that, because they've tried it. And mid-week shows, ending Thursday, are just as bad. Friday can be unlucky without being the 13th.

Jean McConnells comedy "Haul for the shore," which might also be presented by Totnes amateurs this season, goes on stage tonight. It's set in a fishing village, reputedly Cornish; though Mrs Deedes admits: "Dialect might be a bit far east."

Builder George Preston, the society’s chairman, heads a predominantly male cast. Among them Trevor Jones, male nurse Harry Westcott, Taylor George Salter and his son John; and farmers Maurice Anning, who comes to evening rehearsals from Didworthy, and Julian Deedes, who is also an assistant stage manager.

Up and coming Jennifer Truan, a 17-year-old typist whose name is always misspelt, takes her first part in a full length of play. Cast is completed by housewives Evelyn Hard, Joan Ayres, and Anne Butler, also in her first play.

She writes the music for the annual pantomime, one of three yearly productions by the society. Husband Hugh Butler, retired headmaster, writes the script. This year’s "Goose Girl" is his third. With George Salter as "Dame" and a cast of nearly 80.

Tonight’s producer is Mr Harry Grinder, who’s been coming from Newton Abbot twice a week for rehearsals. Former Devon Education drama instructor, he’s produced for Totnes. This is his only work for South Brent since “Dear Octopus” four years ago.

Pavlova’s driver

Oldest member of the backstage team is sprightly 70-year-old Harry Turner of 9 Courtenay Park, South Brent, who used to be chauffeur to the almost legendary Pavlova.

He remembers carrying the great Russian dancer, exhausted by strenuous evenings of ballet, from the great theatres of Europe to her waiting car, and from the car to her apartment.

Stage manager is engineer Mr John Piper, who is already preparing for the New Year pantomime. And piles of old costumes are being turned out by Mrs Deedes to be converted for “Goose Girl.”

Youngest member of the cast is her six-year-old daughter, Sarah. And here's a curious thing. There are no fewer than nine pairs of sisters in the company. Sarah’s nine-year-old sister Jonquil is one of the fairies.

Other sister couples are Dolores and Kay Trundle, Rose and Anne Watts, Margaret and Mary O’Shea, Ruth and Janet Dodd, Betty and Joan Mortimore, Muriel and Pauline Steer, Joyce and Daphne Hughes, and a 22-year-old June Andrews and her 19-year-old sister Pamela who is Fairy Queen.

Sheila Winzer’s South Brent School of Dancing will provide most of the chorus. Principle boy is 16-year-old Christine Elizabeth Perraton. Principal girl is Christine Preston, a first-class soprano, who will be 21 on Friday. I don't suppose she'll spend her birthday at the mobile Cinema show.

S BRENT PLAY ABOUT CORNISH SMUGGLING

By our Drama Critic

At the Church Hall, South Brent, yesterday, the South Brent Amateur Dramatic Society presented “Haul For the Shore," by Jean McConnell.

This is a beautifully observed play dealing with a set of characters in a small Cornish village. The story, such as it is, is concerned with the smuggling activities – the author has caught very well the free and easy attitude of the old Cornish to other people’s property.

The play’s main humour lies in characterisation. Some of the characters, especially the two old fisherman and their widow friend, will be recognised as authentic by anyone who knows anything of Cornish villages.

Harry Grinder, who produces, makes use of a most authentic set upon which the company is to be congratulated.

SALTY HUMOUR

George Preston, George Salter, and Eve Lynn hard contribute a flavour of true rustic humour. Mr Preston, especially, reeks of the sea, and has all the tennis, salty humour of the old fisherman.

Trevor Jones gives a pleasantly unobtrusive performance as a vicar, and Maurice Anning and Joan Ayres do competently in large roles. Anne Butler is an admirable doctor. Harry Westcott, Jennifer Truran, and Julian Beedes [sic], and John Salter complete the cast.

Here is a small village dramatic society which, in the last five years, has presented 14 entertainments. It is, obviously, playing just such a part in the life of the neighbourhood as a dramatic society should.

Certainly, the standard of playing and production in this current play is quite comparable to any work done by societies of larger size that I have seen.