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O Extravaganza! The Great Extrav Reunion Weekend & Capping Revue Revival [1993]

Folly as it Flies

page 12

Folly as it Flies

"Thou little thinkest what a little foolery governs the world."

Motto of the pre-War Extravaganza Programme.

The Crick Crock Cricketeers, 1935

The Crick Crock Cricketeers, 1935

It would seem to be as difficult to justify the annual Extravaganza of Victoria University College as it is to justify many other things that human creatures do. The institution existed in the "goodoldays" before the lifeline of the College was broken by an extravaganza of another sort conducted overseas. According to tradition, the Extravaganza began as an entertainment for the graduates of the year. The procession that preceded it was intended partly to inform the public that Capping was a time of carnival and partly to advertise the Extravaganza.

Later, when college clubs depended for their support upon those who used them, the Students' Association looked to the Extravaganza to provide the means of satisfying its modest financial requirements. In the Tammany times of the early twenties, College politicians of the authoritarian school at one stroke made student officialdom independent of the favour of the individual by persuading Authority to introduce that minor form of conscription known as the Students' Association Fee; and immediately both Procession and Extravaganza lost whatever meaning remained to them. The Extravaganza lingered on until 1924, then died. 1929 saw its resuscitation as a student revel, but mainly (as the disposal of the profits showed) to sate the appetite which the easy money of the inclusive fee had engendered in the sports clubs, particularly the Football Club, which at the time was dizzy with unaccustomed victory. A determined effort by W P Rollings and other valiants to have the profits of the 1929 show earmarked for the purposes of a new student building was defeated; and the objective which would have given reason to the annual lapse remained in abeyance until 1934, when Carl Watson and Reg Larkin somehow or other managed to have the profits of the Capping programme appropriated to reserve. This appears to be necessary if the Extravaganza is to be more than an annual skylark. The article listed Extravs from 1921 to 1934, with 1925 - 1928 Years of grace.

"Done to Death" I saw from the inside. Mr Harcus Plimmer said in the "Dominion" that the performance was obviously intended for the enjoyment of the participants. "A good time was had by everyone," certainly, but the glitter and the melody of the thing seemed to be adequate to the public taste. So was "'Struth", a show written by a returned soldier in an ecstacy of disillusionment. Two toughs were in the stocks when the curtain went up and were back there when it finally went down, but this time they were laughing uproariously at what their answer was likely to be if they were asked to go to a war again. "Luv" and "Pep" were ventures into the purely spectacular under the sponsorship of a producer from outside the College. They were good of their kind, but it wasn't the College kind.

In 1929 a move in the direction of the old tradition was made by presenting "G.G." in the Town Hall without scenery of any sort. The very fine songs of DJ Donald, the music of W H (Jimmy) Stainton, the co-operation of the experienced Miss Marie Richmond and Mrs W H Stainton, and new-timers such as A E Campbell and A C Keys, the tightfistedness of the business managers and the general enthusiasm of the College over the revival, all helped to make a record success. Perhaps the fact that the depression had not yet begun explained some of the success. "Kyd," written under difficulties, was produced in the Town Hall in the following year, but lacked the spontaneity of "G. G." and was not as successful. "Willum the Conk", by the young brother of D J Donald, suffered from the inexperience of the author, and received the page 13 full impact of the bad times. A distinctive feature of the revues of the past three years has been the emergence of that bewildering youngster, Redmond B Phillips (who can write good stuff and bad stuff with equal facility). His high-water mark so far is his "Murder in the Common Room" of this year's "Cappicade" (as the Extravaganza is now called). Should Redmond ("An Irishman, I presume" as Queen Victoria once said) maintain his "Common Room" standard and make fewer concessions to certain superstitions about popular taste, he will write the best show of the current phase.

No record of the modern Extravaganza is complete without mention of the veteran Vryn Evans, who was active in College shows before our period, and during the period has taken the lion's share of the work of producing. He and Jim Stainton (composer of haunting airs and conductor par excellence) have probably done more than any others to help the Extravaganza along. Vryn's capable successor is W J Mountjoy, junior (who has yet, however, to free himself of conventional notions derived from a study of professional leg-shows). Producers to the fingertips are Doug Edwards and Miss Dorothea Tossman.

The question of justification raised at the beginning of these fragments had reference to the Extravaganza as a purposive effort. From this point of view it is only a play, mere folly, of little benefit personally, involving an expenditure of time and effort out of all proportion to the few hours' amusement given, interfering (although not necessarily) with study. If, on the other hand, it be regarded as an opportunity for students for association with one another, it is seen to hold its own against any other incident of the student life and, good or bad, wise or foolish, needs no further justification.

P J Smith

"Bonk" Scotney as Bunko Mustalinitlerassinini, "Hells Bells" 1936

"Bonk" Scotney as Bunko Mustalinitlerassinini, "Hells Bells" 1936