Arias of Adamant

Class of Nineteen Hundred & Eighty Four

Frank Cairns
[Men’s Chorus]

“Don Foston, Oliver Crockford and myself were part of a group of knights storming the castle. We were to capture a maid as she ran off–stage and carry her back on as she screamed and struggled to escape.”

“One night, we’d hoisted the girl above our heads and were making our entrance, Don and Ollie were in front leading the charge when Don walks off the stage and falls into the orchestra pit, a misstep which Ollie would later describe as ‘an explosion in fabricland.’ Afraid of falling herself, our victim begins thrashing even more while we tightened our grips and continued as nothing was wrong. I asked Ollie if we should stop and wait for Don, and Ollie said, ‘no, he’ll catch up with us later.’ The poor girl, meanwhile started at 5’8” and ended up 6’2” for all her struggling.”

Douglas McIntosh
[Men’s Chorus]

“In the third act, the ladies defending the castle use a catapult, which was a miniature built as a prop.”

“During a performance, one of the defenders was hit by the projectile, and shrugged it off, continuing with her business as if nothing had happened. It was an excellent comic moment; and the archer’s unconcerned reaction drew a large laugh from the audience.”

Elizabeth Thomson
[Chloe]

“For the storming of the castle walls in act 3, George Taylor had made a wooden cannon which was to fire styrafoam cannon balls. Celia Taylor, his wife was the chorus lady firing the cannon, but had some difficulty getting it to work.”

“I remember one cannon ball just falling out of the cannon and dropping on the floor beside it, so Celia with great presence of mind made a big show of lifting it as though it weighed a ton and heaving it over the castle walls at the back where all the men were waiting to storm over. It landed on George’s head so he just picked it up and heaved it back where it came from!”

“(It was a) Great show and we had lots of fun.” – Liz.

Richard Linley
[Arac]

“Elizabeth’s memory of the siege engine is different from mine. It was, I think, a miniature catapult built by the late Howard Mawson. On one memorable occasion, Celia launched a ball and it struck my wife, Heidi Linley. Heidi didn’t have the presence of mind to fall dead, but she did give Celia SUCH a LOOK!”

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[Please note: the webmaster merely collects and posts these various stories and cannot be held accountable for any apocryphal anecdotes or overtly fancyful recollections by the actors.]