Mexborough & Swinton Times, Saturday, October
Our Boys
Denaby ‘Thespians’ Good Attempt
The Denaby and District Thespians on Monday and Tuesday, entertained fairly large audiences with a comedy, ‘Our Boys,’ in the Large Hall, Denaby Main. The play was produced and stage-managed by Mr. F. Fuller, and the scenery was lent by the Mexborough Amateur Dramatic Society. An orchestra was led by Mr. C. D. Soar.
‘Our Boys’ in a piece of mid-Victorian sentimentality, of conventional construction – heavy fathers, sons who marry for love, events which work up a climax of affecting reconciliation, and the whole is neatly rounded off with the pointing of the moral in a superfluous closing speech. It is one of those plays wherein the whole cast fills the stage at the end of each act in order that we might see exactly how they stand so far.
With such a play, everything in the performance is to the credit of the players. And it is a designed complaint to the ‘Thespians’ to say that they carried off the effusion with a daring and vivacity that made it amusing for their audience. The whirring of the mechanism of the play was in our ears all the time, so continuous that it became part of the normal sounds – like the ticking of the clock on the mantelshelf at home. But sometimes there were clicks and jam that made it very awkward, and left it to the ingenuity of the players to give an appearance of plausibility. They managed it very well.
Mr. Fuller was quite happy as the self-made father, who knew a lot about butter, but nothing about grammar. He was particularly fascinating when he puffed his cheeks. Mr. A. T. Allaby was also convincing as the well-educated son of the butter-man, and he has the attributes of an excellent voice and a good presence. Mr. T. Holcroft, as a baronet, and the traditional tyrannical father, was successful, and really looked the part. Mr. O. Jones played the baronet’s son easily and pleasantly.