IN FONDEST MEMORYDIANA BENN (d.1999) |
She played many parts in the earlier years, notably Helen of Troy in The Trojan Women (1948) and Grace Tranfield in Shaw's The Philanderer (1951). She was extremely beautiful when she was young and retained her good looks into old age. In the Euripides, Vivian Isenthal was so struck by how fantastically right the part of Helen was for her, that she painted Diana in costume and exhibited the portrait in a London exhibition. It was purchased by the owner of a restaurant somewhere in the North of England and, as far as I know, hangs there to this day. Another memory I have is the opening moment in the Shaw play. The curtains parted revealing Alfred and Diana locked in a passionate embrace on a sofa. History relates that the Stage Manager stood in the wings each night with a stopwatch in his hand ready to leap on and break up the kiss if it went on too long. As the Stage Manager was George Benn, who Diana married in 1946, this was quite understandable. But Diana was a true Questor and did not confine herself to just Acting. She was Hon. Secretary of the Club for several years in the 1950s and in the 60s was one of Dorothy Dent's loyal associates on the Sunday afternoon 'Hotplate'. Di and George had two sons, Christopher and Richard, and just after Richard was born she and I and our four children shared a holiday in a rented house on the Kent coast; our two husbands joining us whenever they could manage.
Kit Emmet |