A Celebration of Arts and Music
Thursday 12 May 2011 - Sunday 22 May 2011
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A
Grave History at Holy
Trinity Church on Tuesday, May 17th did not require the
audience to dig too deeply to appreciate Michael Johnson`s
informative and entertaining Revue. Real and imagined stories about
earlier generations of Cookham worthies commemorated in and around
the Church, were re enacted by a talented cast led by local yokels,
Mike Clark and Ted Harris. There were interruptions from two
opposing angels and a commentary from a local prescient journalist,
Kate Durham, on local Cookham scandals which the Maidenhead
Advertiser would have revealed if only it had been there in the 16th/17th
Century. The sketches were matched by musical interludes. Gillian Salmon led a Choir of 12 singers in harmonious melodies, some with acerbic verses. The highlights included the irreverent rivalry between early Vicars of Bray and Cookham in the bowdlerised version of the traditional song the Vicar of Bray and Michael Johnson`s version of the climactic duet from Bizet`s The Pearl Fishers, nobly sung by John Paramore and Nick Plant.
Addendum
This delightful show
was written by Michael Johnson and starred
Mike Clark,
Ted Harris, Mandy McAllen, Michael Johnson, Kate Durham and Andrew
Thomas.
A fabulous group of
12 musicians sang a wide range of stunning pieces under the
direction of pianist and MD Gillian Salmon
Nick
Billinghurst and Oliver Heyward
led a technical team of Denis Boothman, Richard Campin,
Colin Jackson, Alan Grapes and John Sykes to bring this
show to life on stage at Holy Trinity Church.
Congratulations
Michael and the whole team - a triumph of the festival.
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