PRIVATE FIRES
by Fred Watson
Directed by Michael Almaz
Cast:
Charleen Agostini, Keith Codman, Robin Duval, Lawrence Irvin, Philip Remington, Eric Smith, Sheila Sorley, Ffrangcon Whelan
THE AUTHOR
Fred Watson was a British playwright and television writer. He first attracted widespread attention with Infanticide in the House of Fred Ginger, winner of a Charles Henry Foyle New Play Award and presented by the Royal Shakespeare Company at London’s Arts Theatre in 1962. Its uncompromising language and disturbing subject matter made the production notably controversial.
The Questors selected his unfinished play The Surrey Recruit for the 1964 New Plays Festival, developing it through rehearsal as an experiment in collaboration between writer, director and actors.
Watson returned to the Festival with Private Fires in 1967. By then he was working full-time as a writer, with television credits that included King of the River, The Wednesday Play and the anthology series The Gamblers.
THE PLAY
Questopics, June 1967
The last of the three and certainly the most unusual is what Michael Almaz, the producer, describes as a black farce. It has stock farcical situations but the characters are far from cardboard. Michael says the play has, as well, a great deal of humanity, even touches of sadness but throughout, the style and manner of the acting will be larger than life—an ironic comment really, as the story behind 'PRIVATE FIRES' is one where two ordinary working class chaps inherit a private crematorium. When faced with a potential customer with six bodies for disposal, middle class moralities take over.
"The play is not, however, a Marxist philosophical treatise but, in the words of the author, "its aim is to provide two diverting if gruesome acts with an interval for drinking in between!". Fred Watson followed this a little more seriously with his own candid comment that it was an attempt to link the low comedy of the chaps with the later high comedy of conscience.
PHOTO GALLERY
THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN STEPS IN
Up until 1968, all new scripts destined for public performance in the UK had to be submitted to the Lord Chamberlain's Office for approval and were subject to censorship. To get round this, The Questors, like many other progressive companies at the time, operated as a private members club, so it was only when we took our production of PRIVATE FIRES to Felixstowe a few months after the New Plays Festival that we were required to submit it to the Lord Chamberlain.
A licence was granted but subject to several alterations to the text, which included the following:
- several uses of the word "buggered" and the phrase "shitting myself" had to be omitted;
- in one scene "the actor's screams must neither be too realistic or prolonged;
- To the stage direction "..she continues to dance with apparently nothing on" was added this note: "At no time must the actress appear on stage in less than briefs and adequately supporting opaque brassiere."
Presumably we were able to put our hands on an adequately opaque supporting garment in time for the Felixstowe performance!!
PRESS RESPONSE.
Fred Watson's macabre comedy attracted a generally disappointing critical response. The Stage felt the play promised a powerful black comedy but delivered an uneven mixture of borrowed ideas and underdeveloped themes. Amateur Stage likewise considered the writing insufficiently disciplined, arguing that the author's cleverness often overwhelmed the drama. Douglas McVay's review concentrated more on the colourful plot and lively performances than on critical analysis, highlighting the crematorium setting and the surprising striptease finale. Overall, the surviving reviews suggest that the play's striking premise failed to fulfil its dramatic potential.
Amateur Stage
The Middlesex County Times
The Stage and Television Tody
QUESTORS ARCHIVES
PRIVATE FIRES