Mexborough & Swinton Times – Friday 22 March 1929
Swinton Players.
“The Tragedy of Nan.”
(John Masefield).
Jenny Pargetter Mabel Spring
Mrs. Pargetter Edna Gavin
Nan Hardwick Margaret Harrison
William Pargetter Leslie A. Gavin
Dick Ourvil Bob Ford
Arty Pearce Will Twigg
Gaffer Pearce Laurie Rowlands
Ellen Dorothy Jones
Susan Emily Wressell
Tommy Albert Frost
Rev. Drew Victor Hadkins
Captain Dixon . Frank Ward
(Play produced by Laurie Rowlands).
The Swinton Players this week made a most creditable attempt on John Masefield’e rustic tragedy, “Nan,” a gloomy study in the Masefield and Housman Manner of the “Nature red in tooth and claw” that underlies the simplicity of rural life and manners.
It is a wonderful play, and makes great demands on the insight and poetic feeling of the chief performers. There was response to these demands which was not unworthy. The acting of Miss Margaret Harrison in the name-part was at times deeply moving. She made as feel the bitterness of the cup which passed from her father—a victim of Jeddart justice—to herself. She really conveyed the anguish of loneliness, friendlessness, depression, desertion, and disappointed hope, and made us feel and see the inevitableness of her fate.
As she went out to meet the “Golden Rider” —the surging tide of the Severn—we were satisfied that only in this way could this outraged spirit pass out. It was a striking performance, wonderfully shot with beauty.
The third act, containing the other-worldly antiphon between Nan and ancient Gaffer, in which they take up the tale of the Golden Rider, adding in turn a touch to the picture of the advancing tide until at length it rushes and roars upon us, was most effective.
Mr. Laurie Rowlands as Gaffer Pearce gave us a worthy study of the part and got into it a good deal of the intense pathos in which it was conceived.
On the sinister side, the outstanding figure was Mrs. Pargetter, splendidly played by Mrs. Gavin, who gave us the perfect harradian, a Dickensian figure of step-motherly cruelty and spleen. I once listened in an Assize Court to as terrible a story of crime perpetrated by a woman of this type as had ever been unfolded to judge and jury, and Mrs. Gavin’s version of Mrs. Pargetter reminded of it powerfully and unpleasantly. Her hatred and jealousy of Nan spluttered and hissed out of her.
Mr. Leslie Gavin gave us a most satisfactory performance of William Pargetter. Mr. Gavin is, I imagine, a West country man. At any rate, he was strikingly true to the west country rural type, and gave us some fine and effortless characterisation.
In the more exacting but similar part of Dick Gurvil, Mr. Bob Ford scored a notable success, bringing out with equal strength the romantic and the shoddy sides of Dick’s nature. On his humorous side he was particularly good.
All the other characters were well and soundly done, Miss Mabel Spring’s Jenny being a particularly promising performance.
The play was as well produced as any that the Swinton Players have yet done. The groupings were effective, and the costumes, together with the humour—albeit its grimness —added touches of brightness which helped to ease the tension. The play was the last of the season, and, from every point of view except, unhappily, patronage, the most successful.