• Reviews

    Posted on June 13th, 2010

    Written by Charles

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    In these tough times for amateur theatre it is obviously necessary to sell as many seats as possible – especially in a small intimate theatre like the Nomads. Therefore a Saturday Matinee is considered necessary but the players like The Nomads and Bookham Operatic are not professionals and in many cases hold down full-time day jobs as well as acting. Where the leading role means barely being off the stage for 2 hours on a Saturday afternoon, getting a short break and then doing it all over again, it can detract from the evening performance. In professional theatre the afternoon is sometimes a chance for an understudy but this was not an option.

    Helen Teasdale was a brilliant Calamity Jane, but for a while at the start, the sparkle was just not there. then the excitement overcame the tiredness and she went on to bring the show to life. Fine voice, great acting and super delivery of her eight songs including The Deadwood Stage, Windy City, My Secret Love. Several of these were full chorus numbers excellently performed.

    Joe St. Johanser is a professional and made a fine characterision of Will Bill Hickock. He performed a touching duet with Jane in I Can Do Without You. The role of Katie requires clever acting skill as she first has to appear as a theatrical dresser with dreams of performing, but little skill. But she gets her chance on the stage of the Golden Garter Saloon in the Wild West and is encouraged to throw aside her inhibitions and is brilliant. A tough job to perform something badly, but the Director, Jackie Shearer, rehearsed the “good” performance first and then got Catherine Peacock to do a downgraded one.

    Calamity thinks she might be in love with the handsome, dashing army officer, Lt. Gilmartin. Dan Addison didn’t quite come over as all that, more a quiet gentlemanly performance with a good voice for his duet with Katie Love you Dearly. At which point Calamity realises it’s Bill she really loves so there is a happy ending with a double wedding.

    The proprietor of the saloon is Henry Miller a fine characterisation by Jeff Wightwick as the chaos builds up over the arrival of the beautiful Francis Fryer. Who turns out to be a drag artiste!. Convincing performance by Chris Rozier. Nicole Woods as Miller’s niece, Elaine Burns as the Bartender and Dreen Legg as the glamorous Adelaide played excellent cameo roles. And of course there was the usual hard drinking cowboy propping up the end of the bar played by Alan Wiseman.

    Derrick Graham

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    This entry was posted on Sunday, June 13th, 2010 at 12:32 pm and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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