A Play by CLIFFORD BAX
Set to Music by ARMSTRONG GIBBS
Relayed to Daventry
Cast :
Pantaloon (a middle-aged Merchant)
FREDERICK RANALOW (Baritone)
(in his original part)
Harlequin (a young Scholar)
SYDNEY NORTHCOTE (Tenor)
Mrs. Pascall (a Widow aged 32)
MARGARET COCHRAN (Soprano)
Columbine (Maidservant at the Blithe Heart)
MARJORIE DIXON (Contralto)
(in her original part)
The. AUGMENTED STATION ORCHESTRA
Conducted by T. H. MORRISON
THE play is by Clifford Bax, one of our younger playwrights, who has written, in addition to several small plays, more than one libretto, including the modern' version of The Beggar's Opera.
Armstrong Gibbs, the composer of the music has already written (in addition to chamber music and songs) the incidental music to Maeterlinck's Betrothal, and a comic opera, The Blue Peter, which has been broadcast from London.
Midsummer Madness takes its style from the old ballad operas. It consists of simple, tuneful songs and 'ensembles' (duets, quartets, etc.) interspersed with spoken dialogue. It had a fanciful plot, full of humour.
The whole plot is concerned with the satisfactory pairing off of the four characters. This would have been perfectly simple had. not young Harlequin found attractions not only in the maidservant, Columbine, but also in the widow. Hence arise complications, but they are smoothed away and the two men and two women, young and old, satisfactorily matched.