SEASON 29 (1957-58)
The River Line
The Tragedy of Titus Andronicus
Henry V
The Miser
Ten Nights in a Bar Room
The Long Spoon
Summer and Smoke
Eurydice
This season is notable for (a) Sir Michael Redgrave becoming our President and opening the Shaw Room, (b) the visit of the Moscow Arts Theatre to lay the foundation stone of the Stanislavski Room and (c) the first cautious discussions about opening a theatre bar.
For those (like me) interested in the minutiae of life at Questors at this time, another deep insight into the day-to-day struggles of the theatre can be gleaned from a close reading of the minutes of the ruthlessly efficient Refreshments Bar Committee where it is revealed that the Committee of Management was no longer prepared to pay for "the cutting of sandwiches", that corned beef should continue to be used and that only one packet of frankfurters was to be made available for each night of a show (except Saturdays) to boost the sales of the sandwiches.
It is such rigour that has kept The Questors afloat throughout the darkest of periods!
And so to the opening production of the season.
September 1957
THE RIVER LINE
by Charles Morgan
Directed by John Clemow
Designed by Edward Mendelsohn
This play was based on an incident in enemy occupied France and saw the first appearance on our stage of Ken Connington.
The design by Edward Mendelsohn featured a movable wall, which opened up on the stage like a book to reveal a second scene, the first time that such a technique had been tried.
Meanwhile backstage, on loan from the student group, Sandra Turner (Healy) and Dorothy Boyd Taylor (Dolly Barber) were busy managing the props.
Forestage, the Questors magazine that had begun in December 1949 but had never quite found it's proper role and had not been considered very efficient in selling shows to members, had been laid to rest at the end of the previous season. Its temporary replacement was a four page newsletter issued in advance of each production, this being the first.
September 1957
THE TRAGEDY OF TITUS ANDRONICUS
by Anon (and definitely not Shakespeare)
Directed by Barbara Hutchins (Kit Emmet).
This piece, described as "acted in Germany, about the year 1600, by English players"*, was a fund raising event very much in the vein of Fratricide Unpunished (Season 27, 1955).
* [A quick Google exercise suggests that this was probably the 1865 English translation of a 1620 German play called Tito Andronico, which you can read about on this link.]
The cast included the usual suspects (Carla Craik (Field), Alan Drake, Michael Green,, Vincent McQueen, Betty Ogden, Tony Worth et al) and several new faces who didn't appear on our stage ever again! Not sure why.
By the way I should warn you that the photographs suggest that this production, though clearly satirical in purpose, may raise a few eyebrows in terms of what would be acceptable today.
October 1957
HENRY V
by William Shakespeare
Directed by Alfred Emmet
Designed by Norman Branson
The first thing to note about this memorable production is that it took place during a 'flu epidemic! Not quite severe enough to cause a lockdown but still virulent enough to cause havoc amongst the cast of 50 strong - which incidentally saw the first appearances of Bill Wall and Tony Barber - and Henry Irving no less - presumably not his ghost!
Despite the health problems (both the stage manager and the lighting manager collapsed on the night of the first dress rehearsal) this was generally considered to be a ground-breaking production in terms of the acting, the design and the use of the whole theatre.
There is so much to say about it that it is easier to refer you to this Extract from A Few Drops of Water, which also includes Michael Green's hilarious depiction of the chaos backstage.
November 1957
THE MISER
by Moliere, adapted by Miles Malleson
Directed by Harvey Unna
Designed by Billee Laurence.
A star cast - Ffrangcon Price (Whelan), Bryan Evans, Paul Imbusch, Ned Gethings, Laurence Nixon, Betty Ogden, David Lorraine, Una Chapman, Henry Irving! And introducing Patrick Bacon.
According to the January 1958 newsletter, Dorothy Boyd-Taylor (Dolly Barber), fresh from the Student Group, had to step in at an hour's notice to take the leading role of Elise when Ffrangcon became indisposed.
And of course Paul Imbusch couldn't resist drawing another caricature of Betty Ogden! What was it with these two?
This production was chosen to visit the Torquay open air theatre the following July with a slightly different cast.
December 1957
TEN NIGHTS IN A BAR ROOM
"An American Warning of the Perils of Drink"
by William W Pratt
Directed by Michael Green
Designed by Madge Turnbull
Unfortunately we don't have any photos of this Christmas melodrama which involved Vincent McQueen, David Lorraine, Gerald Rawling, Larry Irvin, Harry Ives, Laurence Nixon, Alan Drake, Jo Arundel (Irvin), Carla Craik (Field) and Sylvia Estop.
Music was provided by by Eric Kirby
January 1958
THE LONG SPOON
A new comedy
by Alexandra Mikellatos
Directed by Barbara Hutchins (Kit Emmet)
Designed by Juliette Howard
Written by one of our acting members (whose play THE TESTAMENT OF CRESSEID we premiered in Season 23, 1952) this play was based on Nicolo Machiavelli's short story THE MARRIAGE OF BELPHAGOR.Paul Imbusch, Bill Rudderham, Laurence Nixon, Sylvia Estop, Wilf Sharp, Doug Thomas, were in the cast and Philip Wright made his first appearance.
But all was not well backstage - to such an extent that it was decided to hold a Stage Management Course afterwards to improve matters.
Things didn't go to well technically in performance either, as this extract from A Few Drops of Water reveals!
In Barbara Emmet's 1958 production of THE LONG SPOON, a new play by Alexandra Mikellatos who was another of the Questors members who started writing for the company, the stage was roughly divided into two halves, lit separately for alternate scenes.
At the final dress rehearsal, before an audience of old-age pensioners, the lighting operator, who was of necessity (the wings were extremely small) positioned so that he couldn't see the stage, got one cue out so that the wrong half was lit. After two or three lighting cues, with the actors frantically chasing the pools of light around the stage, the director realised that the poor operator had no idea he was out, so the performance was stopped and the situation righted, to the delight of the audience, who really felt they were getting "a view of the works".
March 1958
SUMMER AND SMOKE
by Tennessee Williams
Directed by Pamela Richards
Designed by Edward Mendelsohn
Original music by Yvonne Cox and Don Kincaid
In the cast were Philip Wright, Diana Benn, John Clemow, Vincent McQueen, Carla Craik (Field), Neville Bradbury and Ruth Tremayne.
I haven't been able to trace any feedback or descriptions of this production but the director's note in the programme is intriguing.
"Williams in his production note says "There must be a great expanse of sky so that the entire action takes place against it..." You will be able to Judge how Edward Mendelsohn has solved the problem of the provision of four acting areas on our small stage whilst preservation the unbroken action of the play.
This is the first production for which we have a full set of colour photos. They were sent to me a few years ago by the grandson of the photographer, Dr S D Jouhar, "a prolific amateur photographer who exhibited at the RPS [Royal Photographic Society] and all over the world. www.sdjouhar.com."
So far as I can tell this and PYGMALION (1957) were the only two shows of ours that he photographed.
May 1958
EURYDICE
by Jean Anouilh, translated by Lothian Small
Directed by Barbara Hutchins (Kit Emmet)
Designed by George Benn
In the cast were Philip Wright, Ffrangcon Price (Whelan), Larry Irvin and Betty Ogden.
Anouilh's modern-day retelling of the Orpheus & Eurydice myth:
"In the buffet of a provincial railway station the young strolling musician meets the girl from the third-rate theatrical company. They fall in love at sight. The spring is wound tight
waiting for the moment that will set it off.
The strolling musician's violin was played
by Anthony Cleveland, pictured here disturbing Philip Wright's tea break!