June 6, 12, 13, 1954
George Bernard Shaw's charming comedy begins when Androcles, a gentle Greek tailor, befriends a ferocious lion named Tommy by pulling a thorn out of his paw. Later on, Androcles turns up with a jubilant band of hymn-singing Christian martyrs and is thrown to a lion in the Roman coliseum. The lion turns out to be Tommy, who in memory of past favors refuses to devour Androcles.
"Androcles and the Lion was unique in many ways. Somewhat of a departure from all previous successes at Forest Theatre, being primarily a subtle conflict of ideas rather than of gags and guffaws."
[Evan K. Sanders, The Mountaineer, 1954]
During the year after Androcles and the Lion, the two title characters became even closer and in 1955 Marjorie Landweer (Tommy, the lion) and Bob Adams (Androcles) were married.
Dick Kahler, in his role as a Roman gladiator wore a costume made of burlap. One scene called for Dick and Harlan "Holly" Snyder to wrestle and scuffle vigorously. Some Players worried that Dick might get hurt. His wife Jean, however, didn't worry about injuries; she knew he'd been an amateur wrestler and was still in good shape. Instead, she worried that his fragile costume would not hold together through the run of the play. It did.
A fountain featured a plywood "statue" of an Etruscan maiden with a water urn, with water flowing. Betty McLeod, the model for the statue, insisted she did not pose with a bare breast—she was wearing her red Eddie Bauer jacket.
"When the time came to move production over to dear old Kitsap, another unique note was struck. This was the induction into the cast of a statuesque newcomer, destined to become the toast of The Mountaineer Players. The newcomer, indubitably female, was a gorgeous Etruscan beauty, some seven feet tall and built like an Etruscan bric-a-brac. Although her voice was quite inaudible, as she stood in the pool pouring water from her urn, even Director Kelly never denied that her projection left little to be desired, and her charm `just seemed to leap out at you,' as one cast member put it. `Mamie'—for thus was she baptized on the spot by the entire company of players—was the artistic work of Dotty Lahr and the saw-and-hammer work of Bill Lahr."
[Evan K. Sanders, The Mountaineer, 1954]
