Extravaganza

"Salient" has now perused the shows selected for this year's "Cappicade," and finds that they are definitely the best written for some years.

"Adam Baba and the Forty Leagues," by the author of "Bob," is a brilliant satire, surpassing even "Bob" in its excellence. The setting of the play is in Baghdad, and the story concerns the attempts of the Passionalists (later to become Fascionalists) to gain power To do this they form innumerable Leagues, including the Smellfare League, the Offence League, and Half a League, but in a startling denouement, the League's real nature is disclosed, and the Party is cast into the Political Wilderness. The dialogue is witty and scintillating, and the songs promise to be excellent.

The inimitable John Carrad has perpetrated another interlewd, entitled: "Port Nick Iniquity. "This little show has several good songs and the usual burlesque Ballet. It deals with the efforts of Brick Bradford, the hero or the comic strip, to find the treasure hidden by Mick Ravage, the Terror of the Caribbean. Look out for "Treasure Trove"—It's a "hit" song in the best Carrad tradition.

"Olympian Nights." or "The Wisdom of the Gods," described as "A Musical Whimsicality In Three Paroxysms." has been written by Ronald L. Meek. This show far surpasses this author's previous Extravaganzas, "Brave New Zealand" and "The Plutocrats." depending more for its effect on witty dialogue than on its songs, and its humour being satirical rather than broadly farcical. The play is set in the Roman city of Polonia, ruled by the Emperor Asparagus, and opens in the Polonian Art Cutlery, where a bevy of mischievous (male) fairies turn the statues of the Roman gods into the goods of two thousand years hence, and then bring them all to life. The efforts of the gods to foster a revolution and make the populace submit to their numerous and vaguely familiar creeds are ruthlessly depicted, and their final downfall is brilliantly satirical. The show contains several splendid songs, choruses, and ballets. If "Rollo the Revenging Roman" and "One and One Make Two" do not prove to be real hits." "Salient" will eat its editorial hat.

Ron Meek's curtian raiser, "A Banned Item" is a clever little show, and contains a beautiful Professors' Chorus. Rehearsals will commence very shortly, and everyone. Freshers included, is invited to participate in what is potentially the best "Cappicade" for years.