SEASON 13 (1941-42)
Uncle Vanya
The Playboy of the Western World
Squaring the Circle
As You Like It
October 1941
UNCLE VANYA
by Anton Chekhov
Directected by Alfred Emmet
Designed by Fred Robinson
Unfortunately we don't have any photos of this production, which was notable for three reasons. It was The Questors' first production of a full length Chekhov play, the first of four productions of Uncle Vanya, and the first production to involve Barbara ("Kit") Hutchins, very soon to become the second Mrs Emmet and a cornerstone of The Questors for decades to come. She had just successfully auditioned to join as an an acting member, and was asked to understudy the part of Yelena, as well as handle props and help with the building of the set.
Even Alfred Emmet agreed it was "rather an elaborate set with three different interior and one exterior setting, and despite herculean efforts by all those concerned, we were not really quite ready in time."
Kit recalled that on the first night the Act Four set was still being painted backstage while the First Act was playing. And the intervals took nearly half an hour to allow for striking and setting of sets.
But according to Alfred, "we managed to pull our socks up, and the second and third performances got across far better - indeed, after the final performance there was a real ovation such as we have not had for a very long time."
December 1941
THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD
by J M Synge
Directed by Eric Voce
Designed by Fred Robinson
While the play was in rehearsal, Alfred Emmet told members
"This is a particularly delicious play and ought to be an enjoyable show. Meanwhile all concerned are struggling hard with the Irish dialect so any visitors to the theatre should not be dismayed if they hear more than usually peculiar noises when they go in."
Alfred and Kit were cast opposite one another, a partnership that was repeated when the production was revived six years later.
Kit remembered one performance when all the lights went out during an air raid. The floor of the set was covered in straw, which didn't stop the props department producing over fifty lighted candles and placing them all over the set. "Nobody gave a thought of them falling onto the straw littered floor," she recalled. "It was a miracle we completed the performance alive!"
Generally the show seems to have been a success - and even broke the war-time box office record.
February 1942
SQUARING THE CIRCLE
by Valentin Kataev
Directed by Eric Voce
Designed by Fred Robinson
There are no surviving photos of this production but the review in the County Gazette mentions how the stage had been converted "into an arrestive picture of a snow-bound, poverty-stricken room in one of Moscow's municipalised houses".
There were a record number of performances, with extra houses for YWCA, WVS, and two performances at Southgate. "The cast will be working hard with two performances in a day twice," remarked Alfred Emmet.
Despite earlier prospects of disapointing Box Offce takings and subsequent thin houses, he was satisfied afterwards that "It went over very well."
April 1942
AS YOU LIKE IT
by William Shakespeare
Directed by Alfred Emmet
Designed by Fred Robinson
This production is memorable for three reasons.
Firstly it was an all female cast (quite an innovation in those days).
Secondly Kit Hutchins, who had just completed three years studying musical composition, wrote musical settings for some of the verse.
Thirdly Alfred Emmet, who had directed the play, introduced each of the actors "in a running free and easy commentary" and appealed to the audience "to use their imagination to furnish the almost bare stage".
It was also an occasion that Kit recalled in which discipline back stage was not as strict as it aught to have been.
"I played the bad brother Oliver and was wearing a greeny-blue outfit. In those days we were terribly lax in discipline. There were just two side wings and the stage manager and crew would drink tea and have a great time while we were doing our stuff on stage. I was waiting to make my entrance having just been rescued from the lion. They jogged someone's elbow and tea went right down my backside. The Stage Manager told me to go and sit on the radiator and he'd haul me out when my cue came. So I sat on the radiator. And he came back: "Quick you're on." And I apparantly went on with clouds of steam pouring out of my backside."
Despite this and the shattering blow of losing two members of the cast three weeks before first night, the company had a lot of fun, "and the result", according to Alfred, "if not entirely and strictly "As You Like It", was apparently generally enjoyed and found entertaining."