mer member of the drama group - I dropped the subject on advice from Trevor Coldman, who felt that I would need to focus on my A levels and rightly pointed out that O levels don't qualify for degree courses - I understood the problem, part of the exam is a 'workshop' production of one of the set plays.They need some help with what he calls the “minor roles” – would I help? They were planning to do "Sweeney Todd - the demon barber of fleet street" which was the play they had been rehearsing the previous year when I had been involved and with a sinking feeling I recall which part I had played then... Perhaps unusually I agree to do it my reasons are more complicated than I would have been prepared to admit but boil down this: I had declined being in “My Fair Lady”, the previous year - mainly because I had been offered the role of Eliza’s father and what I wanted was the role of Professor Pickering. I had thought that by holding out, Raven would be forced to come running to me to play the part and I completely underestimated his ability to find a replacement in form of one Ronnie Fisk. All credit to Raven and a bit of an ego kicking for Cook.
On the night I was forced to concede that Fisk played that role as well, if not better than I but consoled myself with the knowledge that I would have been better than Rod Watkin's performance as Pickering. Now I find that I accept the offer of a part for the reason that I am scared that if I do not there will
be another successful play in which I will have had no part. I also reason that a production that assists the drama mob is not likely to occupy too much time and leave me free to study.Later: Amazing! Mark and Steve have just announced that they have agreed to help the drama group and are actually prepared to go on stage. I find this hard to believe and for a while think they are simply stringing Raven along. But Steve and Mark have mentioned their sudden enthusiasm for the acting world to their respective loves, so I am forced to conclude that we will be in a play together
Editors note. Our researchers unearthed a taped conversation between Mark Powell and Ron Cook, which took place in August 1992. It would appear that Cook, by then the consummate bureaucrat had started to make diary entries on a Dictaphone and then transcribe these later. Many of the uncovered tapes seem to have been faulty since the contents are slurred and difficult to hear at times but extracts, usually taped in the earlier part of the evening suvive. It's relative proximity to the actual events makes this a particularly valuable document and we’re grateful for Mark Powell’s permission to quote segments even when they showed him in a less than perfect light. The first segment refers to Mark’s memories about being approached by Tony Raven to play a part in the drama group’s workshop production of Sweeney Todd The result was a series of fascinating segments as the two discussed their life and times at Gaynesford High School
***
RC: In conversation with Mark Powell, 23rd August 1992 – recording begins
[Pause]
RC: What do you recall about becoming involved in Sweeney Todd?
MP: I remember being one of the classrooms, although I can’t recall which one and I think Tony Raven appeared and just asked Steve and I to help out with a show, we didn’t have what you would call details. I think we had reservations about it. As I recall at the time Steve was very against the idea.
RC: I am not surprised you had never shown an interest in appearing in a play before.
MP: I had never appeared in any - No!
RC: But you derided people who did.
MP: [Pause] Well, yes!
RC: So what caused you to say yes?
MP: I am not sure, I think it must have been Raven’s powers of persuasion. He said that you and Diane were going to do it – he was just so bloody persistent that in the end we agreed that we would come along and have a look at the script just to shut him up. I think the phrase he used was would we like to help out the drama group with a few of the lines in the show?
RC: That seems to ring a bell. That was the thing about Raven, he had these bloody stupid ideas that sort of grew on you.
MP: So does leprosy!
[Laughter]
RC: Funnily enough in the early rehearsals, I remember you being there, but not Diane and wonder if she came on board later or was simply not in school. I don’t think I saw Beverley either. But I do recall Andrea Cox and Colleen Friday, although they must have dropped out at some point after that.
MP: Yes, I remember that. But for me the rehearsals at Bishops Andrews church hall were the ones that were most memorable it was around this time, that I realised that the relationship with Diane was coming to an end and she was forming a new bond with Lee Burrowes. Lee offered to give her a lift to and from the next rehearsal and I thought, “All is not well.”
RC: Hmm…what about the actual play?
[Sound of beer cans being opened – there is a pause on the tape of several minutes with the faint sound of laughter - the background Black Sabbath's "Heaven & Hell" can be heard.]
MP: My recollection is of bowel loosening terror as I recall the blood capsules we were expecting for the first night didn’t arrive on time.
RC : That might explain why they were so over used for the next show.
MP: My main impression on stage was one of absolute silence – and then of course we ran into our “Mr Todd” “Mr Smith” routine
RC: As in “So Mr Smith if I have comprehended your mission correctly you have come on that little matter you would have me believe owing to you in respect of your mechanical toy, so why don’t you step back a little and fall off the stage…”
[Laughter]
MP: That is so Mr Todd, now do your ten minutes worth. I remember the trouble I had with the crypt prop. Someone had positioned it badly and there was no way I could get off stage without it being obvious that I was crawling away. Which is why for the second performance I felt compelled to break character and announce to the audience “And now for the difficult bit.”
I don’t recall the scenes I wasn’t it, because basically you got backstage, mopped your brow, had a drink, changed your props and came out again. I felt miscast as the greasy preacher, to be that you had to be fat and greasy and I was thin and greasy.
The script was ghastly, I had this one speech about the “lion being loose in the land.” As I was speaking all I could see through the glare of the lights was Colleen Friday absolutely cracking up.
[More sound of beer cans being opened, the laughter is a lot louder - the track in the background is now "Neon Knights" again by Black Sabbath]
RC: Someone should have reminded Colleen that she played Lupin in some of the early scenes.
MP: She did?
RC: Yeah. Do you remember anything about the props we used?
MP: There was a storeroom near room ten – which I think, was the old maths room. It was here that we found some of the props we used in the production. We found the wig that Steve used as Colonel Oakley, at first we used it as an ordinary wig and then turned inside out as a skin wig. Trying it made his own hair horribly greasy, once he discovered this Steve refused to take the wig off, even when called on stage he refused to remove the hair piece.
No comments:
Post a Comment