Tom Thumb the Great - Drama at STHS (Paul Feldman)

Oh Huncamunca, Huncamunca oh!
Thy pouting breasts, like kettle drums of brass,
beat everlasting loud alarms of joy!
As bright as brass they are, and oh, as hard!
Oh Huncamunca, Huncamunca oh!'

In 1965, Chris Ellis produced the play for the School concert. The previous year's offering had been The School for Scandal. Ellis moved back a further 50 years to Henry Fielding's sex comedy 'The Tragedy of Tragedies, or the Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great'.

The play parodies a Shakespearean royal tragedy.

    To quote/paraphrase Thomas R. Cleary
    'Its action centres round a farcical, ever-complicating plot line in which Tom Thumb, a six-inch hero who has conquered a race of giants, and a captive giantess called Glumdalca, become involved in the political and sexual rivalries of a normal-sized kingdom ruled by King Arthur, himself smitten by Glumdalca. King Arthur's wife, Queen Dollalolla and daughter Huncamunca are both enamoured of member-sized Thumb, who loves the daughter in return, in rivalry with the normal-sized Lord Grizzle. It resolves itself through a sustained third Act blood letting. Glumdalca is killed by Grizzle who is killed by Thumb, who is reported to have been swallowed up by a cow 'of larger than usual size'. The Queen kills the bearer of bad news, which triggers an ever more absurd series of murders. The last character left alive is the King, who kills himself.'


The players were Third Form boys. By far the most impressive were those in the female roles. Ierace played Glumdalca bare-armed in a sheepskin vest and a metal helmet with curlicues protruding on both sides. But Paul Meller stole the show as an overweight randy Queen Dollalolla (think Noeleen from Sylvania Waters). Shrieks of laughter when Dollalolla rushes on for a midnight tryst with Tom Thumb, semi-nude and distrait, bearing a candle...

The play featured a number of boys who were not in the least bit intellectual or arty. Tom Thumb was played by Doug Embleton, a tough little character who went back to being a rev-head. John Keller, who played the Ghost, resumed his low profile somewhere in the E classes, but later became an educational theorist.

There was lots of laughter throughout, and thunderous applause at the end. Years later, Ellis told me that the crowning moment of the evening, for him, was when Constance Brown (Lady Bong) encountered him as they were leaving. With a tight look of formal politeness, she said 'I never thought that  you  would put on a play like that, Mr Ellis'.

Ellis was assisted in the production by Ann Jennings and Virginia Sumpter, who rubbed make-up onto my face...