THE St. James Stage Group has done it again!

Its 37th annual Easter Monday Night production at the St. James' Church Hall in Somerset was another hilarious trip down memory lane in song, dance and dialogue.

It seemed almost therapeutic for the standing-room-only audience sustaining their laughter for nearly two hours, watching and listening to some well-known great-grand mothers, mothers and others from the community at large, ranging in age from their fifties to well into their nineties going through some really funny and colourful routines.

As we have said before, many of the ladies in the stage group ordinarily can be found sitting sedately in the amen corners of their choirs and churches. But come Easter Monday night, as they have done for decades, they put aside their inhibitions to do a little burlesque here, an impersonation there, and to alternate the singing of familiar secular and religious songs all in great fun.

Many of those routines or skits, in keeping with the group's traditional format, were written by the players themselves. They were based on real life experiences by 'mommas' in their kitchens dealing with their contrary children at mealtime; teachers trying to discipline wayward students; and customers coping with neighbourhood storekeepers.

There was also a traffic cop played by Roland Lottimore intercepting a couple of cantankerous motorists exceeding the speed limit and then prosecuting them in court presided over by Edna Smith as a convincing no-nonsense magistrate.

The impersonations were backed up by the singing of familiar secular and religious songs and nursery rhymes. And to sustain the pace there was a star-studded seven-piece orchestra, featuring Earl Bascome on piano, Mrs. Judy Virgil on drums, Mrs. Shirley Virgil on harmonica, Thomas Bean on accordion, Earlston Smith, MBE, on saxophone as well as Charles Virgil and Leon Virgil, lead guitarist and bass guitarist respectively.

The show was given a well-received fillip by the appearance of The Ufonics almost as if they had descended from Motown, still pressed in the black and white tuxedos they wore a week earlier in their performance at the big Rosebank Review at the Southampton Princess Resort.

The Ufonics were formed in the early 1970s and were regular features on the local hotel circuit and night clubs of years gone by. They also performed with the Marvellettes, Platters, Drifters and Delfonics.

There was one well-known performer who was conspicuous by her absence for the first time in the whole of 37 years. Ninety-six-year-old Mrs. Olive Smith was listed for the one-person opening act in the programme, Memories in Song.

When I took the liberty the day after the show to telephone Mrs. Smith, inquiring about the reason for her no-show, she gave a hearty laugh, and with an almost mischievous aside she quickly added that at the very last minute she decided "to take a recess" and went to bed early.

She gave an assurance she was all right, and was even happier, because early on Tuesday several concerned cast members descended on her Southampton home and presented her with a basket of fruit she was destined to have received the night before.

Aside from Mrs. Smith, another of the original cast members, 92-year-old Mrs. Iona Maxwell, was in attendance and attracting well-deserved attention. She served as the second president of the Stage Group from 1974-77.

Mrs. Maxwell was escorted to the front seat reserved for her as an honorary patron, and she laughed along with the Ven. Archdeacon Dr. Hollis and his wife, and Dr. Melvyn Bassett, principal of Sandys Middle School. The evening was under the patronage of Dr. and Mrs. Bassett.

We would be hard put if required to single out who was most outstanding among the 16-member cast, as they were all just plain funny; good actors, some of whom might have missed their real callings in life, as they interspersed three and four times for different characterisations.

Rosemary Cann, like Lilymay Bulford and Hattie Ann Gilbert, must have been born for the stage. We will never forget Melvina Smith stomping her right foot around the stage floor to give impact to her rendition of the spiritual I'm Goin' Put on My Old White Robe and I Ain't Gonna Study War No More!

Melvina, with the orchestra backing her up, was just super with her medley of songs that included Your Cheating Heart and Red Sails into the Sunset. And then she helped make up the quintet, rendering Jesus Will Hear You Pray and There's Coming a Day. Others in the group were Viola Rogers, Sheila Jones, Alsace Trott and Delma Smith.

And with a quick change from her Sunday best into a school uniform replete with a blue serge skirt (goodness knows where she got it from), there was Melvina again, acting as a 'kid' in the skit School Misfits, along with Brenda Wingood, Myra Bristol, Winfield Todd and Kenneth Simmons.

The piece was especially written by Mrs. Lois Perinchief in memory of her late brother and Stage Group member Stuart Perinchief, who passed away several months ago.

Winfield Todd is an old hand with the Stage Group, but Kenneth Simmons is a veteran from another realm, along with Roland Lottimore, soloist Joan Dismont singing My Grandfather's Clock, who were making their Easter Monday night debut.

Ensuring the absolute success of the show was the professional direction of Rotimi Martins. Programme organiser and master of ceremonies was Geoffrey Butler-Durrant.

He decided earlier this year to give up the office of president, which he had held since 1988. The new president is Mrs. Marjorie Talbot. Stage manager was Weldon Gilbert, and in charge of the sound systems was Dewitt Thomas.

The Stage Group was founded in 1968 by Mrs. Elizabeth Forde-Jones, who had a vision for an old- fashioned concert as a fund-raising effort leading to the 50th anniversary of the St. James Church Guild.

She had the instant support from such talented people as Jessie Dickinson, who served for many years a musical director, her sister Cynthia Pringle, Elsie Young, Llewellyn Baisden, William Symonds, Alex Outerbridge, bandleader Nathaniel Proctor and several others who are also deceased.

But their offspring and others who were early supporters have continued down through these 37 years, to play important behind-the-scenes roles in getting the show on the road.