St Mary's Calne
This year’s Senior Musical, Betty Blue Eyes was finally able to be staged to an audience with a terrific performance in front of a near full house of family and staff on the evening of Friday 5th November.
The witty and memorable musical, based on Alan Bennett’s film A Private Function, had been scheduled for before Half Term but had to be postponed due to the pandemic, much to the disappointment of cast and creatives alike. Luckily, the cast, with admirable commitment and fortitude, rallied brilliantly on our return to school last week to produce a very special evening’s entertainment.
The plot focused on Gilbert Chilvers, a mild-mannered chiropodist, and his wife, the more forthright Joyce, who arrive in a rationed-hit Yorkshire Town in 1947. Deftly intertwining themes of royalty and respect and featuring many gags, brilliant songs and a fine puppet pig (the Betty of the title), the play raised much laughter and good cheer in the Delscey Burns Theatre.
Charlotte (Gilbert) and Eleanor (Joyce) led a fine cast which also featured Rosie, as a classic old-fashioned Mother-in-law, Leah and Phine as villainous town council adversaries, Elowen in a ‘breakout’ performance as the sweet-natured accountant who saves Betty from the chop, and Tessa in a virtuoso turn as the chilling Wormold, from the Ministry of Food.
It was a thoroughly memorable evening, and well worth the wait!