WILD GROWS THE HEATHER A musical play in two acts founded on J. M. Barrie's The Little Minister by Hugh Ross Williamson. Lyrics by 'William Henry' (Ralph Reader). Music by 'Robert Lindon' (Jack Waller and Joseph Tunbridge). Palace Theatre, Manchester - 13 March, 1956 for three weeks and played for three weeks at Edinburgh. Directed by: Ralph Reader; Musical Director: Lew Stone/Michael Collins; choreography: Gilbert Vernon; scenery: Michael Eve; costumes: Philip Gough: London Hippodrome - 3 May, 1956 (28 performances); closed 26 May, í956. The Production at the London Hippodrome was directed by Ralph Reader; Decor by Michael Eve; Orchestral Direction by Michael Collins; Choreography by Gilbert Vernon STORY This delightful musical has been adapted by Hugh Ross Williamson from the late Sir John Barrie’s famous play and novel, “The Little Minster’ Jack Waller, well know, to theatregoers since the mid ‘20s, undertook the show’s production at the express wish of Lady Cynthia Asquith (Barrie’s Executrix). He travelled throughout the country visiting concert parties, repertory companies and holding auditions, many in Scotland. to get as authentic a cast as possible. The story it, set in the little Scottish town of Thrums in the reign of King George IV. The weavers, in revolt against bad conditions, have forcibly prevented the Earl of Rintoul. as King’s representative, from reading the Riot Act. He has sworn to arrest the ringleaders. The play opens with the leading citizens keeping a lookout for the Redcoats in the wood beyond the town. The Chief Elder of their Kirk. Thomas Whamond urges them to keep Law and Order and to act only on the defensive. The new Minister of Thrums, the Rev Gavin Dishart enters and sends them all back to their homes. including Rob Dow, a reformed drunkard, his son Micah and Joe Cruickshank, a mole-catcher on the Rintoul Estate. Lord Rintoul’s daughter Bobbie is sympathetic towards the weavers’ troubles and having overheard her father’s discussion with Captain Halliwell concerning plans for their arrest, comes to warn then, disguised as a ‘gipsy’. She meets the Minister in the wood and persuades him to blow three times on a horn she is carrying: unknown to him this is the alarm signal for the weavers, who escape knowing that the soldiers have order. not to use their bayonets. Babbie, as the gipsy, is now being hunted by the soldiers. but she eludes them by borrowing a bonnet and cloak from her old Nannie (MA and posing as the Minister’s wife before the Sergeant and two soldiers. In a matter of days, the Minister has fallen in love with the ‘gipsy’ so deeply that it becomes a scandal throughout Thrums, and the Elders of the Kirk lock him out of his Kirk and his Manse. He goes to Rintoul Castle to plead for the gipsy’s freedom and is introduced to Lady Barbara. Realising she is the ‘gipsy’ he rushes out, angry because of the trick she has played on him, whilst she announces to her father that she intends to marry the Minister. Lord Rintoul, wishing to prevent his only daughter marrying a poor Minister, with advice from Captain Halliwell, invokes the Scottish Law which decrees that any couple declaring themselves as man and wife before two witnesses are indeed man and wife. When announces this to the weavers he discovers that the gipsy in the wood. whom the Minister
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