Questories

QUESTSTORIES
THE QUESTORS NEW PLAYS FESTIVAL
4th FESTIVAL 1963
WHO WAS HILARY MACONOCHIE? & THE PEDAGOGUE

WHO WAS HILARY MACONOCHIE? &
THE PEDAGOGUE
by James Saunders

Directed by John Miles-Brown
Cast:
Dorinne Ingram, Alexandra Mikellatos, Sandra Turner, Lawrence Irvin

THE AUTHOR

James Saunders (1925–2004) was one of the most distinctive British dramatists to emerge in the late 1950s and became particularly closely associated with The Questors. His early work combined theatrical experiment, philosophical enquiry and an acute ear for the ambiguities of language, leading to his recognition as a British exponent of the Theatre of the Absurd.

His Festival contributions were Ends and Echoes (1960), Next Time I’ll Sing to You (1962), The Pedagogue and Who Was Hilary Maconochie? (1963), The Borage Pigeon Affair (1969), Hans Kohlhaas (1972) and The Island (1975).

Next Time I’ll Sing to You transferred to the West End and New York and won him an Evening Standard award.

The Questors continued presenting and reviving Saunders’s work for more than forty years.

James Saunders Interview (Questopics 1966)

Peter Whelan and Larry Irvin remember James Saunders

In Fond Memory of James Saunders

James Saunders' Plays at The Questors

JAMES SAUNDERS ON WIKIPEDIA

THE PLAYS

WHO WAS HILARY MACONOCHIE?
Described by the author as "an English play for foreigners". On the basis that all foreigners think all Englishmen are mad, perhaps that is a fair enough description because it is a mad English sense of humour that will best appreciate the zany, but deadly precise quality of James Saunders' satirical comedy.

THE PEDAGOGUE is a short play that James Saunders wrote especially for the Festival, and especially for the actor who played it, Lawrence Irvin, who created 'Meff' in 'Next time I'll Sing to You' in the previous festival.

PRODUCTION PHOTOS
Who Was Hilary Maconochie?

Extract from Festival News No 2 (Alfred Emmet)
"In addition to "Who Was Hilary Maconochie?"(Dorinne Ingram, Alex Turner and Sandra Turner), James Saunders has written a short comedy of menace called "The Pedagogue" to complete the bill. This was specially written for Larry Irvin who plays it - there are no other characters, or, more accurately, there are no other actors. James Saunders also will be in touch with rehearsals, under Miles Brown's direction."

PRESS RESPONSE

Reviews acknowledged the characteristic wit and ambiguity of James Saunders’s play Who Was Hilary Maconochie? but differed over its effectiveness. Kenneth Tynan found it laboured, despite praising Dorinne Ingram’s performance, while Douglas McVay felt its closing transition from farce to pathos achieved genuine emotional force. Amateur Stage admired the crisp, amusing dialogue but criticised the maid’s explanatory function. The Stage responded more favourably to its exploration of memory, rivalry and habit.

The Pedagogue was generally regarded as one of the Festival’s strongest works. The Stage called it perhaps the finest play presented, and the West London Star praised both its progression from schoolroom comedy to tragedy and Lawrence Irvin’s performance. Amateur Stage considered it overlong but powerful and worthy of further production. Kenneth Tynan found its bitter humour poignant, though he believed its treatment inadequate to the enormity of nuclear war.

Amateur Stage

The Observer

The Stage and Television Today

West London Star

QUESTORS ARCHIVES
WHO WAS HILARY MACONOCHIE? QUESTORS ARCHIVES
THE PEDAGOGUE