SEASON 5 (1933-34)
Dragon's Teeth
The Circle
Four years after deciding to put on their first play, THE BEST PEOPLE, at the Park Theatre, Hanwell, and with another dozen or more productions under their belt at various other venues, including St Martin's Hall, Hale Gardens, a local vicarage garden and the Girl Guide Hall, Warwick Road, The Questors decided it was time to put down some roots.
Not having much luck with the Girl Guides, they focused their attention on the Ealing Boy Scouts who were using a disused Catholic Church in Mattock Lane. The District Commissioner for the Boy Scouts Association happened to be a theatre enthusiast and suggested that The Questors join the Ealing Boy Scouts and share expenses.
The Questors moved into their new home in June 1933 and immediately set about building a fully equipped stage, installing a lighting system, hanging curtains and so on - all at the staggering cost of £75!
The official opening of the new theatre was on 14 October 1933 and included a demonstration of the then highly advanced stage lighting system, devised by Frederick Bentham. There was to have been a performance of a masque written especially for the occasion by Alfred Emmet, but it had to abandoned because all able bodied actors were too busy preparing the new theatre to find time to rehearse!
And so all was set for The Questors' first season in what came to be known affectionately as the "Old Tin Hut"...
December 1933
DRAGON'S TEETH
by Shirland Quinn
Directed by Alfred Emmet
Designed by Audrey Perkins
The first production in the Mattock Lane theatre opened on 6th December 1933. It was the English premiere of an experimental new play by Shirland Quin, DRAGON'S TEETH, "undoubtedly the most experimental work done by a London society in recent months, if not years", according to The Amateur Theatre. One audience member was heard to describe it as "splendid audacity!"
The Times reviewer summarised the play as being about "a jumpy young woman who is in love with a neurotic inventor of a war machine", but undoubtedly the theatrical focus was on the elaborate and expressionistic dream sequence in the last act, involving around 80 characters played by 14 actors!
"It was not staged without some considerable difficulties; Alfred Emmet, who directed, remembers particularly that two cast members, playing nine parts between them, dropped out actually on the afternoon of the first performance, necessitating furious re-rehearsal, even while the first act was in progress. There had been no time to rehearse costume changes, and several times, the actors discovered that by the time they had changed, the scene they had changed for had already finished!" [A Few Drops of Water]
Despite all this, the production made a huge impression and sealed The Questors' already substantial reputation for experimentation and for daring to go where no other amateur theatre dared to go.
"If the best producer in the country engaged the finest cast that money could secure and put this play on tomorrow in the best equipped theatre he could find, he would only be following the lead of these ambitious Ealing amateurs." [The West Middlesex Gazette]
April 1934
THE CIRCLE
by W Somerset Maugham
Directed by Alfred Emmet
Designed by Audrey Perkins
The follow up to DRAGON'S TEETH was a complete contrast - a comedy of manners. And Alfred Emmet didn't hold back in preparing the cast for the challenge that lay ahead. Here's how he began his notes to the cast:
"The first thing we have got to realise about this play is that it is very, very difficult. It is without exception the most difficult thing we have ever tackled. We must realise what we are up against, if we're going to make any sort of worthy attempt at it. You needn't be disheartened when I say that we are bound to fail. What we've got to do is to put our backs into it for all we're worth, to get as near to success as we can. If we all do that, we shall learn a tremendous amount. It provides you all with a golden opportunity - to learn a very great deal about our craft."
As always Alfred expected nothing less than total commitment from everyone involved in the production.
It clearly had less of an impact than DRAGON'S TEETH and the reviews were quite mixed, but there was general praise for the Questors' brave attempt at something that was considered to be beyond the scope of most other amateur companies at that time.