FOOTNOTE!

Chris Snuggs Berners/Halls 58-65: "I Believe that Simon Crawford was the only boy who ever directed a school play, but I don't have the reference to hand.

Barry Clark Hansons 58-65: "I don't know if it counts but I did choreograph/direct the stage fights in "Coriolanus". Many fun stories there but when Coriolanus fights Aufidius (Roy Clouter and Ian Drury) I managed a pitch battle (10 vrs 10) between Romans and Volsci. I arranged for 2 to die as the Volsci folded into their city gate to trap Coriolanus inside. Stretcher-bearers were detailed to carry them off. After one performance there were 3 dead! One over-enthusiastic soldier swung his sword over his head - a no-no in this production and close-order tactics - and knocked a soldier out. To his credit he was on again for the next performance!"

Chris Snuggs: "Asking for trouble to give a WHS boy a sword - even a wooden one!"

Barry Clark: "They were metal - short Roman style made by "Sandy" Hanson to my design! There is another anecdote about the dress rehearsal - or perhaps the first performance being ruined (as far as the first fight was concerned). Sandy had not properly fixed the blade to the hilt of Roy's sword. It fell apart at the first clash. Luckily Ian executed the first parry perfectly and the blade soared over Ian's head and landed further down the stage. The curtains were drawn closed for a scene change so they wrestled for the appropriate time. It went well after we remade the sword - and checked all the others for the next evening's performance.

There was what I thought of as an excellent moment in the middle of the fight. Patrick Hutton had a very modern style - for then - of production. There were piles of several meter-wide cubes in the middle of the audience where some of the action happened. I put several drawing-pins in them. When Coriolanus pinned Aufidius on them in the middle of the fight Aufidius (Ian) got one and stuck it high up in his cloak to pin it to the block. Roy then pulled back and swung at him. The cloak was made of thin lining material and they timed it so well that as Roy swung his sword at Ian, Ian leapt away and the cloak ripped as if the sword had done it!

Another story of that production links Simon Crawford in. At the beginning of the play the Plebs carry him through the audience to the aforementioned blocks shouting "Kill! Kill! Kill!" after the style of the recent (then) film "Lord of the Flies". One of the plebs (I would like to think it was John Bevan) decided to make his acted discomfort real, by pulling out the hairs on his legs!"