I was intrigued to learn that A Bride in the Hand, the farce by Angela Lanyon that will be presented by the Swan Amateur Theatre Company, Worcester, from November 18-22, in its first British production, had been premièred in Scon, Western Australia.
Seeking to learn more of what lies behind this unlikely name, I consulted the internet and was unreliably informed that SCON is an acronym meaning Server Consolidation, Serial Port Control Register, Scheme Contracted-Out Number and Student Consultant – this last, at the University of New Mexico.
Fascinating – but unreliable, as SCON is not an acronym.
An increasing number of people clearly think that any bunch of initials is an acronym, oblivious of the fact that an acronym is initials that actually make a word. A wartime example was PLUTO, for Pipeline Under The Ocean.
I suppose it could be argued that SCON is perhaps an accidental acronym because Scon happens to be a place in Western Australia – but so far I have Googled in vain to find anything to confirm this. Not that I would dream of denying A Bride in the Hand its birthplace, of course.
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Like many viewers, I was dismayed to realise the sparkle-eyed Joanne Malin was disappearing from Central News to pursue a future in radio, where, with the best will in the world, she will not be able to share that cheeky smile with us.
But, as our Post People demonstrated on Wednesday, she is far from just a pretty face.
Jo was pictured with Ian Thompson, Birmingham Crescent Theatre’s director of operations, and another celebratory gent at the opening of the Crescent’s new season. Each of them holding a glass of champagne – but only Jo was holding it correctly, by the stem, to ensure that it was not being warmed by an all-embracing hand.
This is one of the niceties of life that have escaped most people. It is an ignorance that is perpetuated, almost without exception, every time somebody stages a drawing-room comedy which asks us to believe that champagne is the drink of the moment while demonstrating that none of the actors knows how to treat it.
It sticks out like an especially sore thumb in plays set among the upper classes in pre-war Britain, when people generally had more of an idea about such things.
WHAT’S ON
The Memory of Water, Nonentities, Rose Theatre, Kidderminster (to Saturday).
Carmen, Midland Opera Company, Crescent Theatre, Birmingham (to Saturday).
Aladdin, BMOS Youtheatre, Old Rep (to Saturday).
Round and Round the Garden, St John’s Players, Swan Theatre, Worcester (to Saturday).
The Yeomen of the Guard, Erdington Operatic Society, Sutton Coldfield Town Hall (to Saturday).
Run for Your Wife, Wythall Theatre Company, Palace Theatre, Redditch (to Saturday).
My Boy Jack, Grange Players, Grange Playhouse, Walsall (Nov 6-15).
Journey’s End, Crescent Theatre, Birmingham (Nov 7-15).
Canterbury Tales, MDCC Theatre Company, Library Theatre, Birmingham (Nov 7).
Murder in Play, Oldbury Repertory Players, Barlow Theatre, Langley (Nov 8-15).
A Touch of Danger, Highbury Theatre Centre, Sutton Coldfield (Nov 11-22).
At the Going Down of the Sun, Crescent Theatre, Birmingham (Nov 11).
