Hooray For Withywood!
Withywood School Main Hall, April 1988
CAST
Marie Alliston
Liz Bishop
Walter Browning
Rosemary Clark
Clive Elcock
Doug Galloway
Rebecca Howard
Sophie Jubb
Mike Luckett
Paul Praeger
Ann Remmers
Robin Seavill
Tony Smith
Katherine Speakman
MUSIC
Chris Golding
PRODUCED BY
Tony Smith
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY
Robin Seavill
PS
This was one of the last shows the Arts Centre Theatre company put on, so obviously I made sure it was a complete vanity project. It was a showcase for all the play spoofs I had been putting together over the last few years, together with a second half comprising the fifty-minute spoof later to be called The Double Beaux – though I hadn’t thought of that neat little pun yet, so at the time it was known as Beau Jest, or Virtue in Abundance.
The phrase ‘Hiding to nothing’ might have been coined for this one. Since the Little Theatre was no longer available to us – had they decided to close their doors to amateur companies, or were they just refurbishing? I can’t remember – we were performing on the stage in the main hall of Withywood School in Bristol. I say ‘in’ Bristol. Only just. The opening song neatly encapsulates the problem we were all facing, both audience and actors alike (sung to a tune eerily similar to ‘Hooray for Hollywood’):
Hooray for Withywood!
The glamour and the glitz of Withywood!
(It’s something like the pits)
Beneath the charm it’s an urban armpit,
So like a leap in the dark
You try to go there to see a show there
And end up lost with nowhere to park…
Confusing Withywood!
A-fate-not-of-your-choosing Withywood!
(Can’t help abusing it)…
You get the idea.
One critic wrote:“The sketches are well rehearsed and the actors give confident, polished performances. But the success of revue depends on the quality of the writing and for this, Robin Seavill, who also acts and directs, takes the credit and the blame. The show consists mainly of pastiches of famous playwrights. Some are funny and some are not…”
Fair enough. But it's like I always say – you never know until you try. At least I’m glad I tried.
Ann R, Doug G, Clive E, Katherine S. What the Dickens! Ann is saying “Hu” and Katherine is saying “zzah.” Come on, girls, get it together.