The House Concerts

There will be no regular meetings of the Glee Club. next term owing to the lack of time, but there will be some gramophone concerts and lectures on convenient occasions. It is hoped that by degrees the School will obtain a wellstocked musical library, and J. P. Corry is to be congratulated on being appointed librarian for the Society. Altogether we can feel more than satisfied with the great progress which has been made in the musical activity of the School.

The practice of holding House Concerts in the Easter Term has been continued, and the performances gave conclusive evidence that the idea is already well past the experimental stage. The quality of the productions was, on the whole, definitely higher, and one looks forward with confidence to still greater achievement in future years. The concerts revealed much latent talent and elicited unsuspected powers of original invention. It was particularly gratifying to note not infrequent flashes of cleverness which could raise the burlesques from the level of the merely laughable into the realm of genuine wit. There was evident, too, a greater smoothness in presentation which showed that much more attention than hitherto had been given to the vital work of production and rehearsal. We give below detailed " critiques " of each performance.

THE RISE CONCERT.

The Rise set a high standard when they presented their Concert to the School on Saturday, February, 14th. Perhaps its most striking feature was the efficient production of the various sketches and musical interludes. We experienced none of those painfully silent pauses between items, and, in addition, there was a welcome absence of obvious " padding " in the form of noisy, but nevertheless muffled, gramophone records. In retrospect, therefore, one feels that much of the credit for this concert is due to the excellent work of the " backroom boys."

A skit on the B.B:C. " Brains Trust " started the show, in which Dodd gave a very witty impression of an erudite professor who was eager to answer the questions before they were even asked. Murray and Penty next gave us a study in criminal psychology, which was followed by two

violin solos charmingly played by Hnik. The audience was very soon roaring with laughter at the ludicrous antics of the Long and the Short of the British Army (played by Ping and William P. Anelay) whilst travelling in a railway carriage. Ping gave his amatory instincts full play in endeavouring to come to terms with a skittish old spinster (J. E. Thompson). The obvious relish with which Anelay proceeded to read a magazine of doubtful propriety, and the equally obvious interest which this publication aroused in the mind of a presumably respectable parson (P. L. Hort), caused intense amusement in the audience.

Next came a day in the life of a regimental colonel, punctuated by inconsequential interruptions by Thompson (J. E.), in the guise of some radio or screen personality. Ping is an ideal old colonel.

The longest turn of the evening was a play entitled " To-morrow Never Comes." It was well produced, and the actors are to be congratulated on their performance, particularly A. C. Brown. One criticism—final clinches, in which both actors are played by boys, are seldom convincing. The omission of such a climax would have greatly improved the play.

The last turn was a " smash hit." The attempts of a loud-mouthed film producer to put Macbeth over in a new way were a source of intense amusement to the School. P. L. Hort's American vocabulary was most descriptive, whilst Lady Macbeth's wardrobe, ranging from silken nighties to multi-coloured afternoon frocks, was viewed with considerable interest and awe. Anelay, as a superannuated retainer, and several other minor characters, all contributed to the success of a clever and witty skit, which would have done justice to a tip-top London revue.

We left the Big Hall two hours after the curtain had first risen, and we may truthfully say that we enjoyed every minute of it. The concert was well produced, well balanced, and presented by a company of good actors. We congratulate the Rise.

SCHOOL HOUSE CONCERT.

School House held their Concert on February 28th, and after a rather slow start with a sketch giving the private life of Claudius in Rome, the main laugh came with a fierce fight between two agile gladiators. The audience might

have appreciated Pryer's performance on the clarinet had it come later in the programme, but nevertheless he played it clearly and well. Middleton and Lockwood gave a good performance in a scene laid in Italy, the former's accent as the lackey Musso being especially good ; Lockwood was the mainstay in the " Works Wonders," when his treble " descant " roused the mirth of the School. As a rule, singing is not a success in House Concerts, but contrary to this, School House had two very good items, 1 which were of the best in the whole performance. In the first they sang Negro songs, the singers suitably blacked out, and Pryer and Middleton gave a duet, the words of which were topical and extremely witty, and were fully appreciated. The second was a series of hilly-billy songs, sung in the traditional way, but with an unusual and original treatment. Two choristers sang, while the story was acted at the back of the stage under a very dim light, so that the audience saw only their silhouettes.

The piano piece chosen was the theme of the Warsaw Concerto, and Tee is to be congratulated on a very creditable effort. His interpretation was perhaps a little " wooden," but the main reason for this was probably a lack of practice. To master this difficult piece would necessitate far more preparation than would be at the disposal of a " hard working " schoolboy!

Shooting was a predominant feature of the sketches, and, as invariably happens, the blank cartridges failed to go off at the crucial moment. On the whole this failing was covered up well, except that no one knew what had happened in the thriller when the lights went out. In our opinion, the presentation of this sketch, and many others, could have been improved considerably had more pains been spent on production. Several players were quite inaudible.

The Concert ended with a Bowery version of " Jack the Giant Killer," in which Lockwood's efforts kept the whole sketch going; he represented the American press, not only with a versatile camera, but also a very versatile twitch, in the end dying for the good cause. Shooting was plastered all over the sketch (not to mention the audience), but, as usual, true love (personified by Pryer (D. L.) and Caley) was triumphant and our ears were at last mercifully relieved of the revolver's crack and the machine gun's rattle.

In comparison with the show they gave last year, we do not think that this performance was quite up to

standard. The players tended rather to allow the interest of the audience to drop, owing to the length of time that elapsed between the sketches. They also lost the point of one or two of their sketches by allowing the climax to pass and then dropping the curtain on a distinct anti-climax. But on the whole they succeeded in producing an amusing Concert, which was enjoyed not only by those who saw it, but also by those who presented it.

TEMPLE CONCERT

Before the curtain rose on the Temple House Concert of 1942, there was a tendency to believe that Temple would be hard put to it to produce a concert " up to scratch," in view of the facts that it is such a young house, that it has so few opportunities for rehearsal, and that it had the misfortune ( ?) to draw last place of the term. However, the curtain had only risen for a short time before the audience realised that it was enjoying an extremely good and well-produced performance. All concerned deserve congratulations, as the whole show was of an extremely high quality.

The curtain rose on a " beauty " chorus fit to have graced a London stage. Their ballet dance was a great success, helped considerably by the apparently accidental troubles Wilson had with his skirt. From then on the show proceeded smoothly and well, and we were treated to a variety of sketches, ranging from the Royal Navy in action (at a dartboard) to an amazing creation, which, we were told, was inspired by a dream consequent on over-eating!

Bulmer's swing piano playing was enthusiastically received by the jazz fiends in the audience, the rhythm getting so " hot " that the drummer was forced to give up the ghost in " Tiger Rag."

The finale consisted of a well organised pageant of St. Peter's School " history " (so we were informed), ranging from Ancient Egyptian days (this was most certainly news to us), through Roman, Elizabethan and Georgian times, to an imaginary scene at the St. Peter's of 2042, when H.S.C. was taken at the age of six months.

In short, congratulations to Temple on an excellent performance.