friendly service I have ever encountered from a rail company.
As long as I could get to Kings Cross and a train to Alexandra Palace there was a train waiting to go to Hertford every hour. Before it left the station the guard would com e along the carriages and ask ever yone on the train where they wanted to get off. He passed this information on to the driver who stopped the train where hi s passengers had requested . This service has of course now been discontinued and if you are now left slightly the worse for wear in the City you have to find a friend with a spare bed or a spare bed in an unfriendly station.
A week long show and an excess of alcohol puts a strain on the body. I was usually home at half past one in the morning and back in the City by eight later that morning and after a days work , back at the theatre. My staff began to mention that I was beginning to look a little worse for wear, and a bit more frazzled around the edges as the week wore on.
I said as much to Colin on the final night. His advice to me was to take a week’s leave and work his hours. That was the best piece of advice anyone had given me and changed my life.
I once read a book called ‘Zen and the Workplace’ or something like that. Its core advice was that if you were unhappy in your job it was not you at fault, or your employer, or the job, or the rules . What was required was that you find a job where you understood the rules and could work with them.
When my Aunt Maud died I asked for her drinks tray. It was produced by Gilbeys, the gin people. My mother and Maud both worked for them post war in their Park Road , Camden Town distillery. I put my love of gin down to this simple fact.
This drinks tray had a design and words of wisdom for every sign of the zodiac. For Libra it began: ‘The morning is not your best period. Your first drink of the day is most probably an Alka Seltzer’. How true.
Chapter 10 – Double Bill; The Browning Version and Harlequinade
Whilst rehearsals were continuing with Grease we were planning the next show. We knew that funds would be limited owing to the expense involved in Grease. Being responsible Banker s we did not seek to rely on income from four nights of full houses to balance the books. Whatever the outcome we would still be over budget for Grease and funding would have to be pulled back on the next show.
At this time there had also been a growth in new members and something of a revolution was stirring. It was drawn to the committee’s attention that the name of the club included the word ‘theatre’ but there were limited opportunities for non-musical actors to play a part.
The demand grew for a few more dr amas as well as musicals.
Once again serendipity raised its beautiful head. John Hebden suggested we stage Harleq uinade. N o one had ever heard of it although a few of us were aware of the playwright Terence Rattigan. A lot of companies do shy away from this as it is rooted in post war Britain and is about the lives of a touring theatre company putting on classic play s or the works of Shakespeare . It also has r eferences to now defunct Council for the Encouragement of Music and Arts (CEMA) .
I was a little surprised to find that the Club had actually performed Harlequinade in 1959 and The Browning Version in 1970 but never as a double bill.
Harlequinade is a farce. It relies on a group of believable people being caught up in an unbelievable situation. The more intense their inability to deal with spirallin g disaster the funnier the farce becomes. Clive Dunn once spoke about the cast of Dad’s Army as being a group of good character acto rs caught up in funny situations. This is the simple philosophy behind situation comedy which seems to escape many writers in the genre.
This farce would have been ideal for John as he had a sense of humour, a lightness of touch and an ability to interpret the script in a way that
As long as I could get to Kings Cross and a train to Alexandra Palace there was a train waiting to go to Hertford every hour. Before it left the station the guard would com e along the carriages and ask ever yone on the train where they wanted to get off. He passed this information on to the driver who stopped the train where hi s passengers had requested . This service has of course now been discontinued and if you are now left slightly the worse for wear in the City you have to find a friend with a spare bed or a spare bed in an unfriendly station.
A week long show and an excess of alcohol puts a strain on the body. I was usually home at half past one in the morning and back in the City by eight later that morning and after a days work , back at the theatre. My staff began to mention that I was beginning to look a little worse for wear, and a bit more frazzled around the edges as the week wore on.
I said as much to Colin on the final night. His advice to me was to take a week’s leave and work his hours. That was the best piece of advice anyone had given me and changed my life.
I once read a book called ‘Zen and the Workplace’ or something like that. Its core advice was that if you were unhappy in your job it was not you at fault, or your employer, or the job, or the rules . What was required was that you find a job where you understood the rules and could work with them.
When my Aunt Maud died I asked for her drinks tray. It was produced by Gilbeys, the gin people. My mother and Maud both worked for them post war in their Park Road , Camden Town distillery. I put my love of gin down to this simple fact.
This drinks tray had a design and words of wisdom for every sign of the zodiac. For Libra it began: ‘The morning is not your best period. Your first drink of the day is most probably an Alka Seltzer’. How true.
Chapter 10 – Double Bill; The Browning Version and Harlequinade
Whilst rehearsals were continuing with Grease we were planning the next show. We knew that funds would be limited owing to the expense involved in Grease. Being responsible Banker s we did not seek to rely on income from four nights of full houses to balance the books. Whatever the outcome we would still be over budget for Grease and funding would have to be pulled back on the next show.
At this time there had also been a growth in new members and something of a revolution was stirring. It was drawn to the committee’s attention that the name of the club included the word ‘theatre’ but there were limited opportunities for non-musical actors to play a part.
The demand grew for a few more dr amas as well as musicals.
Once again serendipity raised its beautiful head. John Hebden suggested we stage Harleq uinade. N o one had ever heard of it although a few of us were aware of the playwright Terence Rattigan. A lot of companies do shy away from this as it is rooted in post war Britain and is about the lives of a touring theatre company putting on classic play s or the works of Shakespeare . It also has r eferences to now defunct Council for the Encouragement of Music and Arts (CEMA) .
I was a little surprised to find that the Club had actually performed Harlequinade in 1959 and The Browning Version in 1970 but never as a double bill.
Harlequinade is a farce. It relies on a group of believable people being caught up in an unbelievable situation. The more intense their inability to deal with spirallin g disaster the funnier the farce becomes. Clive Dunn once spoke about the cast of Dad’s Army as being a group of good character acto rs caught up in funny situations. This is the simple philosophy behind situation comedy which seems to escape many writers in the genre.
This farce would have been ideal for John as he had a sense of humour, a lightness of touch and an ability to interpret the script in a way that
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