The Compton Players' NEWSLETTER JANUARY 2003

Contents

Editorial - Happy New Year
Under Milk Wood - more feedback
Blithe Spirit
Topsy Turvy
Arms and the Man - background
News of members
Newsletter news
Money matters
Spreading the net wider
CP Calendar
Next newsletter

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Happy New Year

And welcome to a slimline version of the Newsletter, symbolic of our resolutions to slim down after an over-indulgent festive season. Or rather, symbolic of my inability to think of anything to say. As always, I'm indebted to Rob for his contributions, which make this a Noel Coward issue with his account of Blithe Spirit's early history.

We are now about to embark on the Spring Production - Arms and the Man - directed by Dave Hawkins, so make sure you come to the casting reading on 23rd January. The following week we'll be reading H's new play Bill and Bob, which he will consider producing for Wallingford.

'Never gesture below the waist, always above it. Always make the audience believe they are your honoured guests, take your time, don't hurry. Never appear to be nervous.'

Noel Coward to Judy Campbell, one of his leading ladies, in her first important role.

Under Milk Wood - more feedback

I was talking to Brian Willcox, the organist at Chieveley church, over the holiday period. He said how much he enjoyed Under Milk Wood, and how he had been very impressed with the masks. He said that he comes to all Compton Players productions, because the standard is very high (natch), because it’s very good value for money, and because he gets a friendly welcome.

For sheer egomania I have never known anyone like him.

T.E. Lawrence to F.N. Doubleday, New York publisher, about Noel Coward.

Blithe Spirit

Blithe Spirit was presented by the Compton Players in 1991, directed by Mary Warrington, and a great success - naturally. At the time, the play was fifty years old but many of those involved in the production, particularly younger members who had not met the play before, were pleasantly surprised to discover just how funny and how good it still was. The account below tells how this rather unusual and very popular play came to be written and performed.

* * *

'Spent morning with Lorn discussing financial troubles which are considerable. Also discussed play as possible solution. Title Blithe Spirit.' So wrote Noel Coward in his diary on April 22nd, 1941. He went on to describe the proposed play as a 'very gay, superficial comedy about a ghost. Feel it may be good.'

Coward at this time was 41 years old. He had first achieved fame as a child actor in the early part of the twentieth century. Ambitious and hardworking behind a carefully cultivated debonair exterior he went on to develop his talents as a playwright, composer and lyricist, as well as an actor, and by the late 1920s had become the golden boy of the English theatre. His first play, The Vortex, was produced in the West End in 1924. It is currently enjoying a revival there at the Donmar Theatre. It was followed by the comedies Hay Fever and Private Lives in 1925 and 1929 and by the musical plays Bitter Sweet, also in 1929, and Cavalcade in 1931, not to mention a series of one-act plays (Tonight at Eight Thirty) and various revues both in this country and in America. In the world of the theatre Noel Coward had become superman.

By the late 1930s, however, this had begun to change. Some of Coward's more recent productions, such as the musical Operette, had not been so well received and there was perhaps also a feeling that his bright, sophisticated comedies such as Hay Fever were no longer suited to the spirit of the times as the outbreak of war loomed over the horizon. His waning popularity had begun to cause the financial problems referred to in the diary entry above and matters became worse with the start of the war in September, 1939. One of the first acts of the government of the day was to close all theatres and places of entertainment; an action which George Bernard Shaw, author of Arms and the Man and never one at loss for a telling phrase, described as 'a masterstroke of unimaginative stupidity'.

Fortunately, the government ruling was later rescinded to allow daytime performances only but Coward was still in financial difficulty. Hence the discussion with his secretary, Lorn Loraine, and the decision to write a new play.

As a shrewd observer of public opinion Coward believed that what people would want during the drab and dark days of wartime - and they were particularly dark in 1941 - would be something that was both amusing and escapist. And so Blithe Spirit was born.

The original idea for the play came from a story about an old French house, possibly the Villa Trianon near Paris where Coward had once stayed, which was said to be haunted by ghosts from its past. With this idea in mind Coward took himself off to Portmeirion in Wales with a fellow playwright to start writing. The plot evolved very rapidly and Coward set to and finished the play in seven days. An extraordinarily quick worker, usually at his desk by six thirty before breakfast, Coward once claimed to have written four songs in a morning - words and music.

The play went into production almost as soon as Coward finished typing. It was under the aegis of the producer and impresario Binkie Beaumont, a well-known figure of the twenties and thirties with whom Coward had collaborated before. With one exception, casting was quickly completed and rehearsals began.

The story of the play is about a writer, Charles Condomine, who finds his home visited by the ghost of his first wife, Elvira, much to the irritation of his second wife, Ruth. Part of the comedy of the play lies in the fact that only Charles can see Elvira. In order to try and banish the ghost a local spiritualist, Madame Arcati, is summoned to arrange a séance. Madame Arcati professes herself to be puzzled by some aspects of the proceedings and an explanation is provided when it transpires that the maid, an insignificant figure throughout most of the play, is a natural psychic who has unconsciously summoned Elvira up. There are recriminations and revelations between the two wives and between each of them and their husband. A 'straight' couple at the dinner party/séance provide a contrast to the increasingly bizarre happenings in the rest of the play.

One of the slightly odd things about the play is that two of the people involved, Coward himself and the actress Margaret Rutherford who played Madame Arcati, had an interest in spiritualism and the supernatural. Coward's interest was somewhat sceptical but Rutherford's was profound - so much so that at first she refused to take the part since she felt that the play mocked spiritualism. The part of Arcati had originally been written for a friend of Coward's, the actress Clemence Dane, but she declined and it was then that Rutherford was approached. When she also refused the part Beaumont set out to find the reason and discovered what her objections were. He overcame them by persuading Rutherford that in the play Madame Arcati is a fraud and so she, Rutherford, would be performing a service to spiritualism by taking part in the play and making fun of her. A dubious argument but one which worked. Next morning Rutherford rang to say that she would take the part although she said she regarded the play as a very serious one and not really a comedy at all. Later, Beaumont declared 'Of course, she always wanted to do it. She's far too sensible not to realise what a terribly good part it is. But she needed a face-saving way of saying "yes" and that's exactly what I gave her.'

Margaret Rutherford as Madam Arcarti, with Kay Hammond as Elvira and Fay Compton as Ruth

Even without Margaret Rutherford, a character actress of great distinction, playing the part both in the play and in the later film version Madame Arcati became the scene stealer. When Cecil Beaton, the photographer and stage designer, commented on this Coward replied that it had originally been an unimportant role but 'a character takes hold ... and writes itself,' and Madame Arcati 'had refused to leave the stage.' The problem of creating a ghost (Elvira) or two on stage occupied Coward and his designer, Gladys Calthrop. They considered using the Victorian theatre trick of reflecting an actor in the wings onto glass on the stage and even consulted the Magic Circle for advice on creating spectral effects but in the end Calthrop designed a white and pale grey ensemble for Elvira with face and hair to match - the technique that's generally been used ever since. The play opened for a pre-London tryout in Manchester on 16th June - not bad, considering that Coward had only thought of the idea eight weeks previously - and then opened in London on 2nd July. The environment for the first night in the West End was not good. In Coward's own words: 'The audience, socially impeccable ... and mostly in uniform, had to walk across planks laid over the rubble caused by a recent air-raid to see a light comedy about death.' And the performance was not well received. It met with catcalls and abuse and cries of 'Rubbish!' and several critics and leading figures of the theatre world were unimpressed by it. In Gielgud's opinion, 'It was a good joke, but he spun it out too much.' There was also opposition from the clergy, partly perhaps because over the years Coward had made no secret of his anti-clerical views. In a newspaper article one clergyman gave his view that 'death and the hereafter are not suitable subjects for farcical treatment.'

Despite these adverse reactions the general public loved it and Coward was confirmed in his view that amusing escapist nonsense was what people wanted at that time. The play broke previous box-office records with 1,997 performances and Coward found himself reinstated in his position as the English theatre's superstar. Blithe Spirit was made into a film three years later and is still occasionally shown and the play continues to be performed from time to time both in the amateur and the professional theatre.

Most of the information in the article came from Noel Coward: A Biography by Philip Hoare. Very long (605 pages) but very readable, covering Coward's entire life from his birth in 1899 until his death in 1973. Published by Sinclair-Stevenson in 1995. ISBN 1 85619 265 2 (hardback), 1 85619 672 5 (paperback).

Although Coward could be savage towards those he thought were not doing their job properly he could use a more gentle technique when he thought it was required. One leading lady, returning to the stage after an absence of several years, clearly lacked confidence in her own ability and was prone to storm off the set during rehearsals in floods of tears. After three weeks of this Coward took her aside one day and said quietly, 'Look, this really can't go on. After all, if you were working for the Post Office you couldn't behave like this, could you?'

Evidently this had the desired effect and there were no more tantrums.

Topsy Turvy

Mike Leigh's film Topsy Turvy was tucked away in the Christmas TV schedules. This was a fascinating story about the stormy collaboration between Gilbert and Sullivan, and the events leading up to their production of The Mikado. There were some very interesting bits showing Gilbert's authoritarian directing style. This has made me resolve to see a G&S production in 2003 - the first G&S I saw was the Watermill's Gondoliers last year, and that was excellent.

Arms and the Man - background

Prince Alexander I, the Regent of Bulgaria, led the Bulgarian army against the Serbs who had declared war in November 1885. The Bulgarian army was helped by the Russians whereas the Serbs were led by Austrians. The Swiss supplied a large number of mercenaries and Captain Bluntschli is one such soldier fighting on the Serbian side. Such mercenaries had no feelings. At a crucial point Russia called back her officers and Bulgaria was left to fend for herself. In spite of such mishaps the Bulgarians were victorious in the Battle of Slivnitza in November 1885.

The title of the play "Arms and the Man" comes from the opening lines of "The Aeneid", Virgil's epic-poem describing the adventures of Aeneas, the Trojan Prince. Shaw calls it an "Anti-Romantic Comedy". The term romantic, according to Shaw, meant untruth. Romance refers to a kind of fiction, which did not concern itself with real life; it gave greater importance to idealization. The same trend was followed by drama. Scribe and Sardon in Paris wrote well-made plays which had well-constructed plots with several well-known devices. Audiences were used to such drama; therefore, when Ibsen's plays "The Doll's House" and "Ghosts" were performed, people were shocked. Shaw was inspired by Ibsen who tackled real issues and made people think.

Like Ibsen, he tackled real issues that Englishmen were made to think about.

Taken from Booknotes at pinkmonkey.com

Newsletter news

In the last newsletter, I told people on the CP email list that they wouldn't get any more paper copies of the newsletter unless they opted in. I got no responses from anybody wishing to opt in, which I could take as a resounding endorsement of the 'save a tree' proposal, or as a show of complete apathy. I have taken it as the former. I did, however, get an email from a non-member recipient of the newsletter, saying that they would be pleased to get only an electronic copy in future.

Money matters

The committee had a meeting with the Village Hall Committee after the last production. This was a very positive meeting which helped to clear the air, and it's something that we will now do regularly. However, the Village Hall Committee do have financial problems, and they intimated that they will need to charge us more for the use of the hall. We haven't yet had any firm figures from them, but the CP committee have been considering contingency plans, as we are currently just breaking even. The situation will become clearer over the next few months, and we will have proposals to put to the AGM in May.

Spreading the net wider

I have now got a 'proper' web hosting account, which means that we can have our own web site (www.c-p.org.uk) as a separate site from this one. It also means that we can do fancier things with it, but this is where I reach the limits of my competence. I'm fine at collecting information and programming the web site, but when it comes to artistic things I have no talent. So if you've got any suggestions about what our web site should look like, email me.

There is a proposal going around at www.amdram.co.uk for doing credit card bookings for amateur shows. I'll be looking into this further, and I'll tell you more in the next newsletter.

When a London musical version of Gone with the Wind was marred by an obnoxious child actress and a horse that relieved itself on stage, Coward said:
"If they'd stuffed the child's head up the horse's arse, they would have solved two problems at once."

CP Calendar

Next newsletter

All offerings to me, by email to , or by post to Paul Shave, Windrush, The Ridge, Cold Ash, Thatcham, RG18 9HX, 01635 866800. By 8th March please.

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