Drama Society's "Club Night" uncloseted some bright new stars and showcased many other regular veterans
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This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from May 1979.
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Many members will remember the previous Club Night, the brainchild of Patricia Patino, held at the Cayman Arms last year, and I think that most, if not all, members will agree with me that this latest display of the talent of the Society in the presence of its own members and their guests was even better than the first.
Anita Wheaton kicked off the evening with her rendition of "Show Business", which had been so popular at the last Awards Dinner, an she was followed by Georgia Lee McSorley who enlightened the audience with some reminiscences of her childhood and the effect on a small child of some of the more gory nursery rhymes. Ken Clowes, Mike Marshall and Steve Williams, in natty bathing suits, discussed the ups and downs of life in the Yorkshire coal mines, although the majority of the discussion centred on "downs" rather than "ups", which I suppose is understandable when one thinks of coal mines.
One of the highlights (and there were quite a few during the evening) was the magnificent voices of Pat King and Evelyn Anderson, and the audience begged for an encore after their first duet "Dearie". Following the encore, despite the fact that the audience would have gladly listened to more, the show continued with Nick Press, in his usual splendid style, with a piece from George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman. Pat King then came back to sing a solo - "My Funny Valentine" - and, after tumultuous aplause for Pat, Steve Williams related the sequel to "Albert and the Lion" and managed to set a personal record for himself by only forgetting his lines once, and then managing to remember them without the help of a prompt.
The first half of the entertainment was rounded off by Mike Marshall and Toni Parker, in a skit of a married couple in the wee small hours, which was very cleverly done. As in the previous Club Night, the organiser (this time P. Anthony White) ensured that there was a little bit of everything, and the second half of the evening opened with a magnificent reconstruction of President Kennedy's Inaugural Address of 1960 by Ian Paget-Brown. He completely spellbound the audience, and has obviously been hiding his light under a bushel all the time we have known him. Well done, Ian, and we shall now look forward to your next appearance.
After this, it was Anita's turn to return to the spotlight. when she gave us two songs - "Small World" and "Swett Contd. on page 15 Sunday". Back, too, came Evelyn Anderson with her solo "Hard Hearted Hannah", to the delight of the assembled group. The next act of the evening was without a doubt the finest, even though there were so many other excellent acts; this was Terry Murphy and Graham Stapeley enacting "The Art Gallery" as Peter Cooke and Dudley Moore.
It would be a fair assessment to say that the audience was, within minutes, if not rolling in the aisles, at least doing just that in their seats. "Funny" does not adequately describe this skit - it was hilarious - and Peter and Dudley had better look out if these two ever decide to compete with them.
It could have been difficult to follow those two, but Waldo Parchment, even though unrehearsed, managed very ably by singing "Mammy" and, getting the audience to join in. As mentioned earlier, the organiser of the entertainment for the evening was our own P. Anthony White, who would have been quite justified in taking a back seat and enjoying the evening after all the effort involved in putting such a fine programme together.
Not Anthony, though. The man has a definite "presence" on stage, and in my view should stop writing critiques and get on the boards once again. "The Creation" by P. Anthony White was excellent and the audience was entranced.
A most enjoyable evening was rounded off by, first, Evelyn singing "A Good Man is Hard to Find", after which she was joined by Pat and Anita who encouraged the audience to join with them in a sing-along, much to everyone's delight. Lighting and stage management was by Peter Phillips, with Penny Phillips assisting on lights.
Assistant entertainment director was Della Collier.
All in all, it was an evening to remember, and I for one am looking forward to the next Club Night. Ports of Call laid on a magnificent buffet and excellent service, which was greatly appreciated; and all those involved in the evening worked hard to produce what was a fine show with lots of talent.
