Description:A postcard view of Miss Crum and Miss Blagg who were members of the cast appearing in Alfred Tennyson’s play “The Falcon”, at Cheadle Town Hall, during October 1910.
The following is an extract from an article published in the Staffordshire Sentinel on Thursday 20 October 1910.
Amateur Theatricals at Cheadle. An Interesting Evening, Tennyson’s “Falcon” and Lamb’s “Mr H-----“.
Two dramatic performances arranged to be given by a body of amateur actors residing in or near Cheadle, and advertised by the cryptictal name of “The Twelve Midsummer Crickets”, was given on Wednesday in Cheadle Town Hall, to a large and influential gathering. The proceeds for the entertainments are to be devoted to the fund being raised to pay for the new organ recently placed in the parish church. Some £400 of the sum wanted is already in hand, and doubtless when the proceeds of these performances come to be added to that total, the debt will be in a very fair way of being entirely extinguished. With reference to the smart title under which these clever ladies and gentlemen elect to be known, it may be advisable to say that the title “the Twelve Midsummer Crickets” has reference to three plays whose former interpretations have secured for the Cheadle amateurs both favour and distinction. The organisation has already scored well in “The Twelfth Night”, in “The Midsummer Night’s Dream”, and in “The Cricket on the Hearth”, and now they are adding to well-deserved laurels by the production of pieces so widely divergent in sentiment and treatment as Alfred Tennyson’s one-act idyllic drama of “The Falcon “and Charles Lamb’s two-act farce “Mr H-----“.
The entertainment opened with an interpretation of “The Falcon”. The story deals with the love of an impoverished nobleman for the rich and comely Lady Giovanna. The cast was as follows:-
Count Federigo degli Alberighi, Mr A Spencer.
Filippo, his Foster Brother, Mr B G Meyrick
Lady Giovanna, Miss E M Crum.
Elizabetta, the Count’s Foster Mother, Miss D Blagg.
The cast of “The Falcon” was reviewed as follows:-
Miss Crum looked and acted the part of Lady Giovanna almost to perfection. The rich Venetian costume which so well fitted the ladies of Boccaccio’s period, equally well became Miss Crum; and the language of the Count’s foster mother in comparing her to the Madonna did not at all seem out of place. Her delivery of the cameo-like phrases of Tennyson was delightful, for the lady possesses a voice with musical quality which, when it rises and falls with the proper Cadence, is heard with real pleasure. She had, too, made a thorough study of the text, with the result that her passing thoughts were not only clearly defined by the words uttered, but quite as eloquently by her movement and expression. Mr A Spencer, as the Count, was hardly as successful as the lady, but Mr Meyrick, as Filippo was immense. It was a fine study. Miss D Blagg was also exceedingly good as the foster-mother.