In May 1973 the Bristol Light Opera Club “celebrates its 40th anniversary with a light hearted musical”: Dorothy Reynolds and Julian Slade’s Free as Air, played for four evenings, 16th to 19th May, at 7.30 p.m. Gerry Parker produced, with Robert Latham as musical director and June Willis as choreographer, and Sally Noble appeared as Miss Catamole. The band was a trio of Ethel Stanhope (piano), Chris Heming (drums) and Mike Nealon (bass), the bar and its fittings were “supplied by courtesy of Messrs. Whitbreads”, and the programme cost 5 pence. Its “dates for your diary” promised a further performance of Free as Air on Durdham Downs during the Bristol 600 celebrations, and Kismet at the Bristol Hippodrome that October.
Cast
- Molly — Lis Soloman / Frankie Skirton
- Mr. Mutch, the shopkeeper — Tony Holley
- Mr. Potter, the bailiff — Brian Harding
- Miss Catamole — Sally Noble
- Gregory, Bindweed’s assistant — Eric Arnold
- Bindweed, the gardener — Brian Stock
- Lord Paul Postumous, the Lord of the Manor — Frederick Finch
- Tom Ferrier, a boatman — Lance Clarke
- Geraldine Melford, an heiress — Cicely Meyer / Heather James
- Albert Postumous, Lord Paul’s nephew — George Bayliss
- François, the barman — Tony Woods
- Ivy Crush, a woman reporter — Meirion Ashton
- Jack Amersham, a racing motorist — Peter Davey
- Reporters — Eric Arnold, Julian Morgan, Malcolm Daw