St. Stephen’s Young Peoples Church presented a concert in St. Stephen’s Church Hall, West Ealing on Saturday evening.

The programme comprised song and dance items and three sketches, including ‘Black Night’, a story by John Bourne, of the days immediately after the Bolsheviks had taken over control in Moscow. This sketch was notable for the ability with which the various members of the cast played their parts. The story was about a Russian railway worker and his family who, by the bloodshed that the new regime had brought with it, decided to cross the frontier into the newly-liberated Poland, taking a refugee countess with them. At the last moment, however, their eldest daughter betrays the whereabouts of the countess to the Red agent, and the younger daughter gives her life to save her new friend.

Miss Joan Ferris, who produced the concert, took the part of Olga, the elder daughter, and she gave a very fine performance, especially in an emotional scene at the end when she learnt that she had been the indirect cause of her sister’s death. Mr. Colin Gilder, as the homicidal Red agent, was also outstanding. Other members of the cast were Miss Barbara Blackman, who later proved her versatility by singing and dancing, Honor Blackman , Kenneth Symonds, Alan Tooke and Joan Gorard, who was well cast as the countess.

The other two sketches were “The Luxury Bus,” a skit on the cosmopolitan nature of travel in London, and “It’s Quicker to Telephone,” a comedy by Ian Hay.

One of the most popular of the other items was an interlude on the trap drums by Kenneth Blackman, who was accompanied at the piano by his sister, Barbara.

John Gostling and Gordon Naish caused quite a lot of amusement as cross-talk comedians between the various items. It was announced that the profits from the show would be divided between the Ealing Hospital, to which the Young Peoples Church gave £10 every year, and St. Stephen’s Church funds.

Miss Ferris who was presented with a bouquet, thanked those who had helped to make the play a success.