Looking at the picture my immediate reaction is that:
1) I don’t think this is anything to do with an “amateur dramatics group” (I’m speaking here as someone with thespian tendencies!). It’s certainly a posed photograph (as was the norm then) but the poses don’t look theatrical.
2) I think the beards are real (odd-looking maybe, but real).
3) The shoes are definitely not tap-dancing shoes. Quote: “by the 1920s metal plates, or taps, had been added to leather-soled shoes” see:
http://www.offjazz.com/tp-hist.htm 4) My gut reaction is that the group are all to do with boats – either river or sea.
5) The pull-on hats suggest to me that the wearers are all part of a team – rather than part of their working clothes.
6) The man in the middle on the right – with his leg over the shoulder of the man in front of him – suggests to me that there wasn’t room, comfortably, for his right leg to be behind the man in front.
7) As for the monkey – their mascot?
