-- November 5.

Drama, music, and costume served up in a `Flower Fairy Tale' brought the ancient and genteel art of flower arranging into the theatrical arena on Saturday night.

This was a highlight of The Garden Club of Bermuda's International Flower Show which for three days last week, greatly beautified City Hall. A new concept, aimed at livening up demonstrations, and staged by International Design Symposium Ltd., moved the revelries into the theatre. There, before a packed audience of flower enthusiasts, a spectacular, if somewhat bizarre entertainment unfolded.

`Could It Be Red!', devised and directed by Kenn Stephens also found him in the roles of Story Teller, the Wicked Wizard and the Emperor. Clad in a grey and silver-toned doublet and hose over which he draped a series of increasingly sumptuous cloaks to signify changes of roles, he proceeded to impart a fairy story which seemed to have its roots in British panto (even down to the hisses that greeted the villainous wizard).

Inevitably, with the raison d'etre of the whole affair being flower arranging, the plot line was a trifle thin, but full of fun, for all that. The scenario he presented was that of a wizard who stole all the colour red in this mythical land. Citing it as "the colour of love'', the wizard (now sporting a spectacular hooked nose and moon and star-spangled cloak) went a step further by placing a curse on the land.

The flower-loving Emperor (the good guy, of course) languished in a land now devoid of red, a land where no fruit grew and no birds sang. The evil spell could only be broken with the colour red being brought back, so a proclamation was sent out and, hey presto, the Keepers of Colour and Princesses of the Realm came to the rescue. These were, in fact, six highly talented flower arrangers from the around the world and included Deborah Hutton (England), Julie Lapham (US), Susan Curtis (Bermuda), Kate Ziegler (Belgium), Gilda de Garcia (Mexico) and Yasuko Manako of Japan.

Then we got down to the real business of the evening as a couple at a time, working with admirable calm in a strictly timed operation, embarked on a demonstration of their art. Included were a traditional arrangement of light and dark pinks, roses, carnations, gerbera, lilies and celosia from Mrs.

Lapham, and the autumnal yellows and golds and rust coloured gerbera and lilies of Mrs. Hutton. Next, Bermuda's own Mrs. Curtis (who is a co-founder of the Design Symposium) used masses of Bermuda foliage and palms as the background for a glorious composition in mauve gladioli, roses, lilies, anthurium and heather. Mrs. Ziegler brought her own glycerinised rust-toned beech leaves all the way from her native Belgium to provided a dramatic background for the euphorbia, gerbera and lilies of her arrangement. Mrs. de Garcia used orchids for the gorgeous cascade effect of lilac, pink and white tones of her arrangement and only at the very last, did Mrs. Manako from Japan sneak in the elusive red anthuriums, carnations, roses and flaming coxcombs, and so break the spell.

The arrangements were created from urns and stands filled only with basic greenery and it was fascinating to see how the strategic positioning of a bloom here and a bloom there, gradually built into such superbly thought out floral compositions.

Attendants dressed in old China coolie hats and yokes bearing flower-filled panniers, stood at the ready as, to the accompaniment of romantically classical music, the ladies plied their art.

The final tableau, with the Emperor in a sumptuous cloak of many colours, the Princesses, united with their Princes and wearing glittering crowns provided a spectacular scene as rose petals were showered over all and giant gold stars descended over the now happy land.

PATRICIA CALNAN