DRAMA — EVERYMAN

  WITH EVERYMAN AND THE CLAWS-HORNS-HOOVES-AND-TAIL SHOW, Belmont went further than ever before in the annual Drama Festival, and reached a wider—and theatrically a more sophis- ticated audience than ever before in the school's history.  Winner at Hereford  19th March  and at Malvern twice (Midlands Round 16th April ; Western Area Round 14'th May) declared Runners Up in the England Final 4th June ; performances for the author's home village of Talgarth 18th June, and for our own parents on the eve of Speech Day 25th June—for something like four months a cast of twenty four actors and thirteen backstage ssistants lived thought talked and breathed EVERYMAN, 

    It was very much a team effort—and this quality above all others was noted immediately by each adjudicator ('team work much in evidence,' 19th March ; 'worked well as a team' 16th April ; 'an outstanding example of ensemble work,' 14th May).  Fabs Carpanini Ken Madine and Kim Collins will not be offended or hurt if it is quite frankly admitted that 1977 was not at Belmont a vintage year for exceptional individual actors.  It was not a year with a Buswell,  an Aitken, a Pinnington or a Cuffe ; there were no Gainers, Flynns or Woods no Maggies' Claires or Amandas. 

It is true that Fabs had plenty of attack as the Devil, and a certain degree of sinister menace (though one adjudicator mortally offended him by describing him as 'striding out, hands on hips, just a little principal-boy-ish !') It is true that Ken and Kirn struck the right note of normal goodness and ordinary 'squareness'—a couple of 'decent chaps'—especially  Kirn !  But important though the contribution made by Fabs, Ken and Kirn was ey would be the first to acknowledge that the great strength and the unprecedented success of EVERYMAN lay in the traditional Belmont quality of 'team spirit.'  Actually, there were no less than three teams, each one composed of seven characters : the Seven Deadly Sins, the Seven Last Resorts and the Seven Imps.

     The Seven Deadlies had little to do for the first half hour of the play but hide behind their Brother Francis masks.  (No one will ever forget Anger positively cowering behind his mask after skipping four pages of script to declaim his opening line with commendable but rather premature enthusiasm !) Where the Seven Deadlies came into their own, of course was when they stripped off their (superb Brother Antony) costumes, and emerged in jeans and sweaters as slightly bewildered 1977 teenagers.  'Remarkable impact';  'extremely moving '  'each Sin kept the cycle intact'; 'a most telling mood'; 'very good theatre'; 'played with total conviction'— the adjudicators certainly highlighted these final Confessions as the climax of the play.     The Seven Last Resorts were somewhat uneven : Trendsetter, Pessimism, Mischief and Love were all perhaps a little subdued and occasionally lacking in projection and conviction But Authority (Lulu Peart), Brotherhood (Dominic Connolly) and, above all Good Works (Nina Niedzielska) were perfect farce caricatures of pettily officious spinster bossiness recal-citrant northern trade unionism, and Anglican Women's Institute do-goodery   This reviewer is notorious for his male chauvinist piggery, but he here and now goes on record as saving that with the departure of Hedley, Belmont plays will never be the same again   Maggie and  Claire, Amanda and Gemma, Kate and Julie, Kathy and Kirn, Lulu and Nina  how are we going to manage without you ?                                              

     But we were considering EVERYMAN'S quality of 'team spirit'—and the last of the three teams of seven were the Imps.  Let us listen to the adjudicators again 'Extremely effective sequence in the Day in the Life of the Everyman'; 'The Telephone-Operator and the Woman-in-the-Hat worked very well here'; 'the mimed playlets were an undoubted highlight of the pro-duction ;   slickly done, very well pointed, beautifully timed and played'; 'marvellously agile and expressive, bodily and facially'; 'the sheer enjoyment of their performance'      Oh yes

Belmont fourth formers can always be relied upon to steal the show ! This was the strength of OLIVER, PUCKOON and MILLER'S TALE, of SAVONAROLA, FIRE and EVERYMAN Every time it is Belmont's trump card, every time it gives us the edge over any and every other amateur drama group.  

   Costumes (Brothers Antony and Francis, now, alas, whisked away from the Belmont Theatre for the next three years) were the best this reviewer has seen at Belmont in seventeen years.

The Set (Dom Simon, Nick Preston and his merry men) was simple yet very striking, and won us the Bishop's Plate in Hereford and the Irene Gartside Award in the England Final.  Lighting (two nervous but totally dedicated beginners, Hugh Williams and Nigel Stewart) was always efficient, and sometimes even imaginative.   The Author won a Cup as well—in fact, everyone won a Cup—Palm Couit is flooded with silver ! But Alick Rowe won rather more than just a cup : he won, finally and wholeheartedly, acceptance as a member of the Belmont family. 

And the Production ? In the early hours of the 20th March, alone, euphoric and slightly hazy, the Producer recalls typing a notice.  It read :  'Thank you very much for all your hard work and all your loyalty.  I know I'm the producer, but I wouldn't get anywhere without your enthusiasm and co-operativeness.  The Adjudicator asked me : 'Did you teach the surgeons what to do in the operation scene ?' and I said : 'Good heavens, no—I just gave them the main idea and they took over from there . . .'  And that's how a Belmont play is done.  Longmay it continue ! Many thanks. Mates.'

    And really, six months later, the producer can think of nothing to add.

                                                                D.CHRISTOPHER

CAST :   Fabrizio Carpanini, Kim Collins, Jeremy Colman, Kieran Colvert, Dominic Connolly, Charles De Rohan, Jude Durr, Anne Fairhurst, Richard Fallen, Dominic Fenton, Hugh Forsyth, Nicholas Gibbs, Timothy Howell, Francis Kovacs, Kenneth Madine, Nicholas Melling, Kevin Moore, Janina Niedzielska, Anthony Pearce, Marie Louise Peart, Philomena Preston, David Riches, Roger Spicket-Jones, Robert Stockdale, Catherine Walter and Simon Webborn.

PRODUCTION :  Robert Hild, Dom Christopher Jenkins, Anthony Melody, Dom Simon Mc          Gurk, Dom Francis McKenna, Michael Preston, Nicholas Preston, Nigel Stewart,

Michael Stockdale, Dom Antony Tumulty, Charles Walker, Hugh Williams and          Richard Williams.                                                       

"CAPTIVATING MORALITY DRAMA."
"EVERYMAN AND THE CLAWS, Horns, Hooves and Tail Show". 'I just love these one word titles'
said John Mayall shortly before adjudicating the play at the Festival Theatre, Malvern.^ Steps
and stages, ladders and lighting, embraces and fighting, tights and timing, Everyman which
we have consented affectionately to term this production, is Belmont s most successful entry
for the Drama Festival yet. Written by local playwright Alick Rowe, it was first performed
on the Feast of Corpus Christi in 1976 by second year female Drama students at the Teachers
Training College. For us the script had to be altered to encompass both boys and girls, and so
became eligible for entry as an original play.

Rehearsals were begun three weeks before and right at the beginning Fr. Christopher was
heard to say, "I smell success . . . Mates!" The Dress Rehearsal was in no way tense or appre-
hensive but light-hearted and confident. However, the "anti-penultimate rehearsal was the
cause of some jovial emissions as the Seven Deadly Sins had to say the first and last lines ot
their confessions; "It's almost normal to be overweight now . . that's a joke by the way.
(Gluttony-Ann Fairhurst) or "It's a sad thing to make an unsuccessful suicide attempt . . .
next time I'll make it" (Envy-Richard Fallen) and Sloth's "Sometimes I stay in bed all day ...
I'm quite content" (Anthony Pearce).

On the night of the Dress Rehearsal, Pessimism (David Riches) added some extra interest
to the play by tripping on the way up the steps. Meanwhile, the Devil, (Fabnzio Carpanim)
was bitterly regretting giving in to Brother Anthony and wearing red tights ; the Senior Junior
Devil' (Jude Durr) had problems in procuring a pair of red underpants ; Mr. Everyman s
Brylcreem was dripping from his neck ; Kieran Colvert's tights just would not stay up ; the
Devil nearly fell down his ladder ; Avarice (Nicholas Gibbs) succeeded in getting the end ot
his speech wrong, yet again, but apart from that everything went very well indeed.

Right through to the small hours Brother Francis was cutting up egg cartons to put on the
Imps' heads and was still, no doubt, recovering from being volunteered as "resident expert

on masks" by Fr. Christopher. A lady study ing for a PhD in fine arts at the College of Education
had phoned to ask if she could come and see a demonstration in mask-making. She arrived,

armed with camera and notebook and doubtless thoroughly enjoyed Brother Francis twenty

minute battle in trying to come to grips with something he had never done in his life ! Mean-

while Brother Anthony was, in his own words, "Up to my eyeballs in velvet and sequins and

Richard Williams, his assistant, made himself extremely useful by rushing round making impor-

tant lists of anything and everything in sight.

On the night itself the performance went off without any hitches at all, and for the rest of

the week both School and Cast were on tenterhooks waiting to see if there were any plays

which seriously rivalled ours. There were only two contenders in the general opinion, one of

which "Day of Atonement" by the Dore Players, came second and consequently joined us in

goineonto the next round at Malvern. Third was another of Alick Rowe's plays, "Consequences

which was about baby-battering. On the last night of the Festival, Saturday, amidst cheers

of triumphant euphoria, Belmont was awarded the David Garnck Cup for gaining first placer

Fr Christopher, the Bill Aston Cup for the best producer ; Alick Rowe the "Andrew s Shield

for the author of the best original play ; and the Stage Manager, Nick Preston, collected a

plate for the best stage setting which we shared with the Curtain Raisers Dramatic Society

We had won everything we could possibly win, yet Fenton still adamantly insisted that we should

have won the Women's Institute Shield as well. To judge from audience reaction Nina Nied-

zielska almost achieved it !

The cast returned for the second round on Thursday, April 14th and rehearsals were begun

the following morning. After a run-through at 8.15 p.m. and a quick cup of coffee it was bed

for all at 10 30 Fr Christopher was still recovering from his hernia operation of two weeks

ago and had to take things easy for a few weeks. At 8.30 the next morning about fifteen of

us went to Malvern to take advantage of the twenty five minutes allowed to familiarize ourselves

with the stage. The set, which was Fr. Simon's creation, consisted of discarded pieces of air-

craft steps and seemed to turn a few heads as it sped along the road in a Hereford Rowing Club

trailer carrying a sign saying "Belmont Theatre." At this stage the play had undergone a few

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minor changes, and one large one. The surgeon's scene had been brutally amputated from the

script much to the disappointment of Hugh Forsyth and Nick Melling who had reached a fault-

less standard of performance. Also, the Devil had to condition himself to saying :

See me. Devil, black as any Sin,

Come here this night to Malvern (instead of"Belmont Abbey")^.

Your souls to win.

We returned to School at about eleven o'clock and had a highly amusing, and extremely

difficult, run-through with no set and very little lighting. At 3.30 the coach took us all to

Malvern and Fr. Simon immediately began applying the make-up. Love (Charles de Rohan)

placed his rapidly wilting daffodils in a basin, Mr. Everyman started on the Brylcreem Richard

Williams checked his lists and Fr. Christopher thought about hernias. No one in' the play

or associated with Belmont had any idea of how we fared against the other plays since we were

all ruminating and, at the same time, listening to Dave Heggie in the Bar! Alick Rowe had

his victory cigar at the ready. He did not attend the adjudication because, according to the

Western Daily Press" he gets "all knotted-up inside" about other people's judgements of his

work. The adjudication seemed to be quite favourable and Mr. Mayall's only criticism was

that he thought the Seven Deadly Sins confessions were too long and in danger of becoming

rather boring. Little did he realize that Anger (Frank Kovacs) had very nearly relieved the

boredom to the tune of seven minutes by missing out about five pages of script I very much

doubt anyone will forget "Anger I bring" in a hurry !

With regard to individual performances, he said the Devil had a good deal of power and

command and was vocally sound ; Mr. Everyman was convincing and relaxed but looked

^too embarassed" when kissing his wife ! (Mr. Everyman cringed); of his wife he said she had

a good voice which was well used" and mimed very well in the 'Day in the life of The Everymen'

scene He thought Love looked the part, and Authority (Lulu Peart) was full of assurance •

Good Works (Nina Niedzielska) was vocally excellent, and it must be noted that after both

performances Nina was spontaneously applauded ; he said that Brotherhood (Dominic Con-

nolly)-was a fine Union man" and the Seven Deadly Sins managed to put their difficult speeches

across well; the Imps were "well grouped and worked well as a team"; and finally Trend-

setter (Catherine Walter) looked the part but must take care of her articulation. So we decided

that while Trendy' 'improved' her articulation Mr. Everyman would practice embracing his

wife ! Fr. Christopher did not agree and ruled that it was "in character" for Mr Everyman

to look embarrassed at such a time.

When the various votes of thanks were eventually terminated and the result announced

one telt that the audience agreed and, of course, unlike us they had seen the other plays When

Fr. Christopher went up to receive the very large, valuable, and extremely heavy trophy people

ceased thinking about winning and turned their thoughts to hernias. Fr. Christopher conducted

himself with the utmost grace and, with a most attractive little bow took to the wings.

Loading the set on the trailer afterwards, an official of the Festival said to Mike Preston

(Stage Hand), I suppose this lot fell off the back of a lorry ?" "Well actually, it was a plane "
replied Mike somewhat indignantly. On the coach back, Alick Rowe lit his victory ciea'r

Robert Hild (the Guitarist) strummed victory songs and Richard Williams gathered his lists
together in preparation for the next round. A few days later our success began to infiltrate
the local newspapers. It was truly a heart-rending moment to realize that Fr. Simon had his
name in a newspaper for the first time since helping Bowdon Rugby Club to lose by 114 points
to nil back in 1961 ! Ninety-four out of a possible hundred. The next round is
to be held at Malvern again on May 14th, and success there would give us a very high chance
of going on to Inverness for the British final. This account cannot be drawn to a close without
mentioning Hugh Williams (as distinct from Richard Williams who makes lists !) who together
with Nigel Stewart, made a highly professional job of the lighting. Kevin Moore (Pride) Philo-
mena Preston (Lust), and, finally, Roger Spickett-Jones (Mischief) who, although not previously
mentioned were all essential to the success of this production, e- v V
Inverness ? Och, yes !
Stop Press — Alas, No !