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History of
Company Shows & Productions
130th Glasgow Boys' Brigade
1992’s “A Space Oddity” had aliens landing in
Glasgow where they encountered Rab C. Nesbitt, Taggart, The Broons,
Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs and even members of the Royal Family. As in
War Of The Worlds, the aliens were defeated by a simple earthly
substance – this time it was Irn-Bru – and the show raised
money for the Motor Neurone Trust.
In 1994, “Hi Noon!” was re-worked and extended as “Dunces
With Wolves” (with cabaret from ‘Tammy Wynette’,
a rambling Country & Western singer and ‘Elvis’) and,
in 1996, “A Fistful of Splonders” was re-worked as “Sherwood
Shenanigans”. Robin & Marion duetted in “Something
Stupid” and the merry men performed as Take That. The Town Crier
narrated and read out topical news items.
What was to be the last show was 1998’s re-working of
“Roman In The Gloamin’” as “Chariots For
Hire”. Julius Caesar was duly murdered but Sherlock Holmes
was somehow brought in to solve the crime. The interval had an
audience-participation game of “Play Your Cards Right”.
The shows
were performed in mid-March and weekly rehearsals began immediately
after the Christmas holidays – the script having been written in
the autumn. At first, the scripts were co-written by all the Staff but,
from “A Fistful of Splonders” onwards, only two or three
people were involved. From 1990, everything was written by Gordon Cubie
helped by John Hamilton, who used to be on the Staff. There were echoes
of ‘The Goon Show’, ‘Monty Python’,
‘Round The Horne’, the ‘Carry On’ films,
Morecambe & Wise, Chic Murray and Glasgow music hall humour
interspersed with our own awful puns and parodies.
The church hall was always full and the ticket money gave us a budget
for props and accessories etc with a healthy amount being able to be
given to our chosen charities.
Latterly, every Boy in the Company was involved and appeared on stage.
Obviously, the older or more talented ones got the main parts and
singing roles but every Boy gained great experience from performing in
public. The Staff manfully directed, worked the sound and lights,
painted scenery and stage-managed. Jokes from the shows (some of which
the younger Boys did not even understand) became Company catch-phrases
and are still remembered fondly by those who took part.
Cystic Fibrosis, TEAR Fund, the Blind Society, the Motor Neurone Trust,
Scottish Cot Death Trust, Scottish Deaf Children and the Association
for Restricted Growth in Children have all been supported through these
events and representatives from these charities were sometimes able to
attend the show to see our efforts and to be presented with a cheque at
the end of the evening.
Gordon Cubie
March 2009
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