(Harrow County School play, produced by Mr. G. F. Bilson in 1969 and reviewed by Mr. G Lafferty in the Gaytonian Magazine.
Romeo and Juliet is notoriously a difficult and dangerous play to produce, its lyrical flights and dying falls degenerating into elocution and bathos repectively. As might have been expected, however, the School Dramatic Society avoided all the pitfalls and brought us a splendid production that gladdened and saddened -- the eye and the ear.
The play is largely a vehicle for the male juvenile lead, and it was a great personal
success for Francis Matthews, playing Romeo. Here was a young man of striking good
looks, of presence, authority, fluid movement, a powerful but flexible melodious voice,
with a rare ear for blank verse rhythm and professional timing and delivery. He gave
us not one but at least ten or twelve Romeos - - a performance of staggering versatility
in one so young.
...
The high praise that Madeleine Pratt deserves as Juliet is to say that she was worthy of
her partner. She was a delectable innocent, charming in looks, and an infinitely
tender, infinitely suffering thing, a lovely actress with a sweet strong voice and a
remarkable sense of pathos. Together, the pair were completely convincing in the
splendours and miseries of first love.
Irene Fawkes playing the nurse riveted the attention on her every entrance. Coarse, and untrustworthy, she carried conviction and provided a source of ready humour.
The early scenes were dominated by the towering figure of Mercurio - a lithe, black-bearded panther-like James taylor, who combined a strong, intelligent delivery with a professional repose and admirable sword-fighting.
The whole cast combined magnificently to create the total effect. One mentions
briefly, as one must, Michael Woods' sonorous dignity as Prince Escalus; Richard Salter and
Suzanne Finch miraculously aged as Lord and Lady Capulet, Chris Kinman's emaciated
apothecary, and Mark Phillips's cheeky "business" as the illiterate serving man.
...
The production, by G. F. Bilson, was surely an object lesson to producers. He had at
all times a sure hand in interpreting the sometimes obscure text; his deployment of actors
around the stage, his exits and entrances wer so rigorously drilled that they seemed
natural and inevitable. As a spectacle the play alternatively dazzled and drugged
the eye.
Mr. Bilson wanted to give Shakespeare his full voice and to satisfy the textual needs of the many students of the play. The pace was leisurely and if there were langeurs these were largely the fault of the author.
Chris Kinman's interesting but static set was an effective unifier, giving continuity to the story of the play, though one had to speculate about its self-conscious, even wilful, austerity.
The lighting staff must be congratulated on the contrasts achieved between the sunny colour of the early scenes and the sepulchral blackness that shrouded the final scenes.
Points of View
(Apart from the official criticism above, the Gaytonian received a number of comments on the play.)
Clive Anderson, making a most striking debut as Tybalt, cat like and dynamic .... the
tall anularity of Charles Aylmer's Paris, the epitome of all establishment Figures, an
awkward, unromantic gangling young subaltern .....Suzanne Finch fading miraculously into
the background ..... Stewart Dresner doing little to explain the "O" level
Examiners' interest in the character of Balthasar..... Michael Woods giving a good
impersonation of Mickey Mouse trying to be a paper tiger.
* * * * *
Philip Sallon showed how good an actor he could be if only he had a tenth of James
Taylor's energy.
* * * * *
Richard Salter doing his famous impersonation of Noah-Norfolk-Gonzago-Daddy Pegs moving
like a clockwork doll with a nodding head.
* * * * *
James Taylor - a great woofing shaggy dog, learning his words only at the last minute, but
doing his nut so successfully that even the other actors were overwhelmed.
* * * * *
Michael Portillo making a brave stab at the impossible part of the drug-peddling
prototype-Pandarus figure of Friar Lawrence who today would surely have been unfrocked and
thrown off the register.
(Gaytonian 1969)
Romeo and Juliet 1969 Cast List & Credits