REVIEW - Weston Mercury and Somersetshire Herald Friday November 4th 1949 - HE BUILT 500 HOUSES IN SIX MONTHS!

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Knightstone Theatre's stage this week becomes the offices of the Bellington Town Council. Bellington's Mayor is Mr. Leslie Titley, and the Town Clerk, whose wig excusably gets a little out of place on a festive occasion, is Mr. Leighton Norman. And there's a mysterious man from the Ministry who takes over Bellington's housing problem, and, by wielding a rubber stamp, crashes through Ministerial red tape, procrastination and form-filling to get 500 houses built in six months!

Presented by Weston Dramatic Society, Madeleine Bingham's "The Man from the Ministry" is hilariously funny. It pokes fun at things which comedians and the rest of us, have long used as a butt, but the situation here is unusual. We get inside a Ministry office and also the dingy Town Hall of a backward authority.

It is a play with amusing ideas, and has many good lines. The construction, however, is not smooth, and the way in which characters are brought on and simply left with no contribution to make, causes difficult moments for the players. A further point is whether the play is supposed to be comedy or farce. It doesn't seem to be either, the ingredients are mixed.

        First Night Nerves

Monday's opening performance was handicapped by one or two hitches, first night nerves on the part of several players, and by the play being taken at too slow a tempo over the first two acts. It needs to go briskly from the start. By the third act, however, everybody was confident, and the production raced to a grandly funny finale.

There was a bad moment when Bernard Lloyd ("The Man from the Ministry") was late for an entry. The pause was awkward, as long as two or three minutes, and unfortunately the three people on the stage did not do much to fill it. Such incidents should not occur. Every production should have a call-boy, and every player on the stage should know what to do in such an emergency.

Another criticism, this time of the "effects dept.," is that noises off, supposed to suggest Sergt. Brown splashing in a bath, sounded more like the sawing of timber, and incidentally, did not seem to come from the bathroom, but from an open window opposite.

        Bernard Lloyd's Best Role

These were teething troubles, and I imagine by now "The Man from the Ministry" is running smoothly and confidently throughout its three acts. Robert Maguire, the producer, has done excellent work, and has been fortunate in his cast, particularly in Bernard Lloyd in the "man from the Ministry" role.

Mr. Lloyd really does suggest an ex-Army devil-may-care type who has extraordinary ideas and audaciously and methodically carries them out. One never doubts his efficiency or his sense of humour. His ex-Sergt. is a thoroughly likeable fellow, and he has all the necessary touches, from the sentimentally considerate, as expressed in his handling of the woman house-hunter, to the purposeful director of housing dealing with the antagonistic Councillor Fox.

Romance, represented by the presence of an attractive secretary, also finds him convincing. It is easily the best contribution Mr. Lloyd has ever made to Weston amateur dramatics.

        Her Debut

Jean Hayward, as Katie, the secretary, was making her stage debut. I am confident she can be very much better than she was on the opening night, when she was obviously nervous.

She has good looks and personality. When she became more confident her Katie gained immensely in attractiveness. Unluckily, she has to carry the first few minutes of the play alone, as a bungling typist at work in a Ministry office. She was not altogether convincing in this scene on Monday, but atmosphere was not helped by incidental music, which should be cut out. Miss Hayward is a most promising recruit to the society.

Charles Dunster, who plays the Ministry official, Mr. Vincent, is not, perhaps, ideally cast. He is good, his acting is sound, but he does not consistently suggest the mincing, Ministry type.

Leighton Norman struts around most efficiently as the Town Clerk. Always a sound player, Mr. Norman's interpretation of this part could scarcely be bettered. Trouble making, vindictive Councillor Fox, is extremely well played by Richard Walton. His sallow make-up and generally morose bearing are a great help in putting over the character.

        Newcomer Gets Laugh

Another newcomer who gets some of the biggest laughs of the show is Tony Hughes, who as the flashy, golf-minded Mr. Ponsonby from the Ministry gives a really first-rate study in the asinine.

Bellington has used the whole county's allocation of timber, and Mr. Ponsonby has called to investigate. Never was there such a likeable, affable Ministry investigator. Eric Hopkinson, a Weston journalist, also make his bow in local amateur dramatics, appropriately enough as a newspaperman! Playwrights always seem to model newspapermen in the crude Yankee style. Bellington's local rag reporter is no exception, and in addition, is not averse to using a photograph for blackmail. I don't imagine Mr. Hopkinson found that playing this part was easy, but he sketches it firmly as it is set down.

Leslie Titley as the forgetful Mayor who first loses his chain and then his speech, provides a good comedy cameo. His burst of laughter on the remark "Five hundred houses without a licence!" cannot but be infectious.

Victor Dimoline also admirably sketches the hard-head, racy brickworks owner; while Mildred Norman gently touches the sentimental as the "Woman with the shopping basket."

In a play which contains the elements of comedy and farce, it is perhaps difficult to know what to make of those council typist-gossips, Phyllis and Elsie. They are well played by Irene Court and Thelma Price-Jones, but interpretation, I think, errs in making them caricaturist. Phyllis and Elsie, of course, should be amusing, but at the same time they should be convincingly flesh and blood.

The production's stage manager is C.R. Lundman, his assistants being Warren Powell and Walter H. Brown. Norman Farler is the Society's electrician. Both settings, the Ministry office, and the Council office, are very attractively achieved.     "Everyman"