The Cicala Players - The Middle Watch

The Cicala Players – in The Middle Watch by Ian Hay and Stephen King-Hall

Staged: 13-14 April 1951 at the Fortune Theatre Drury Lane London

There must be something about a play set at sea, for once more for once more, the Cicala Players have pinned their colours to the mast to stage “The Middle Watch” by Ian Hay and Stephen King hall, described as “a romance of the Navy”. (Don’t quite know what to make of that)! Martins Bank Magazine raises the argument that this is a popular play, and that as such it might be easier to stage something a little more worthy of the acting and producing talents of the staff. The conclusion is that the Bank’s Staff is there first and foremost to entertain, which perhaps means they got away with it on this occasion… Mr Paul M M Slatter, produces the play and also performs in it under his “stage name” of Paul Myrton. As in every amateur society, there are one or two people whose abilities and/or performance really stand out, and in “The Middle Watch”, special mention is made of someone who is acting with the Cicala players for the first time, Pat Machin. Pat, it appears, is a whizz with accents, able to produce uncannily accurate speech in American, Canadian, even Cockney accents. She is described as having a great personality, and a promising addition to the group. You can see her here (above left and below) in a close-up of a love scene with John Howard.

For the Spring performance of the Cicala Players the choice was “The Middle Watch”, a romance of the Navy by Ian Hay and Stephen King-Hall. It was produced by Paul Myrton (P. M. M. Slatter) at the Fortune Theatre, Drury Lane, on the nights of April 13th and 14th. There are those who deplore “popular” plays and who would like to see “worth-while” plays attempted by a Society of the standing of the Cicala Players. We ourselves feel that the accent in our Bank dramatic societies is most safely placed on entertainment first, and that something light is more acceptable for what is to some extent a social occasion.
The Entire Company
There was no doubt at all about the reception with which this play met. The play itself is excellent, full of good comedy lines and piquant situations and the pace is fast. The plot evolves round the situations which arise when two young ladies spend the night on a cruiser because the picket boat which was to have taken them ashore breaks down. None of the members of the cast will quarrel with us for saying that Patricia Machin, a newcomer to the Players, stole the show. She was so good in every way that before writing these lines we had to make sure that her American accent wasn’t “natural.” She has had the advantage of a period of residence in Canada and has visited the States but she is a born mimic and she satisfied our curiosity by giving us behind the scenes a demonstration of “cockney” which would have passed anywhere for the real thing. Her sparkling personality, her sense of fun and her real acting ability combined to ensure the complete success of the production. A very valuable addition to the strength of the company. Paul Myrton as Captain of the cruiser gets off to a flying start in this type of part because he looks the part so well. He commands naturally and the only bits of real acting he had to do were the love making scenes with Pat Machin. His acting experience was more than equal to these, which contained some pitfalls at the beginning because of the speed of the play and the temptation to overdo the falling in love. A less experienced actor would not have been as convincing. John Howard, as the Admiral, was another who looked every inch the part and tackled the various situations in which he found himself excellently. But in his case, we found it difficult to reconcile his height and commanding voice and presence with subordination to a domineering wife.
Pat Machin and John Howard	John Evans Paul Myrton and Arthur Odell
Arthur Odell, who took the part of the Commander, might have paired better with Stella Brown, who looks much taller. Stella, as usual, was splendid and hen-pecked the Admiral to just the right extent. Arthur Odell was a quiet and tactful subordinate to his somewhat irate Captain and took the role with smartness and dignity. Vivienne Maddock, as the very-much-in-love young girl, contrasted admirably with Pat Machin and her plaintive calls of ‘Bo-bo’, her pet name for her fiancé, Captain Randall of the Royal Marines, were as realistic as they were faintly embarrassing: we have all of us heard girls taken just like that! A very good portrayal. Glanville Podmore, another newcomer to the Players, took the part of Captain Randall, showing distinct promise. For sheer hilarious nonsense Ernest Yates and Kenneth Carlisle, as the Corporal of Marines and the marine respectively, took the palm.
The appearances of the Corporal were short and crisp, much too short for most of us, and the two together were a perfect comedy team. John Evans as the Captain’s Chinese servant had a very difficult part. Not being familiar with the Chinese shuffling walk we are unable to say whether he did it well or not but we felt that it looked a bit artificial. His speech and intonation were much more authentic, as we can testify from personal knowledge. Raymond Dean made a convincing and resplendent Flag-Lieutenant and Stella Terry, an attractive Admiral's daughter. Shirley Clark lent some very acceptable local colour as a guest on board the cruiser and Doris Richardson as the ridiculous Aunt Charlotte earned the applause she received. George Kent made such a realistic Able Seaman that it was hard to realise that he was in real life just another bank clerk!		George Kent and Kenneth Carlisle
It was nice to sec so many of last year’s principals helping behind the scenes and from Producer to audience we were all very conscious of the great contribution the back-room boys and girls made to the success of this production.