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“At its best, theatre is unforgettable. It can also be life-changing, illuminating and revealing.”
With these words, Playhouse Director Michelle Dickson echoes Gerard Gould, an ardent supporter of the theatre since his very first visit in 1944. Although the theatre was full when he arrived – as was usual during the war years – he was able to buy a returned ticket. The play was Hamlet by William Shakespeare.
It was the first night and the actors were already tired from a period of intensive acting and rehearsal (the repertory system - one play performing for a week, another simultaneously in preparation - was in full flow), from constructing the set, painting flats, sewing and trying on costumes. The play started at 8.00pm and three and a half hours later the actor playing Claudius fainted on stage, from tiredness or lack of a decent meal …! The audience waited while he was restored to consciousness and the play continued until 12.30am.
Credit: Lindsay Viner
Gerard, now eighty-four, has vivid memories of the experience. “It changed me radically,” he says, “It was the most wonderful thing I had ever seen.”
Interestingly the Oxford Playhouse in Beaumont Street was the only repertory theatre to be built in England between the wars. It opened to the public in October 1938 with a star-studded production of FB Fagan’s And So to Bed, and continued to flourish during the war years. But theatre became less popular in the period of austerity that followed and it was not until the 1950s that the actor, Frank Shelley, took over as one of the very last ‘actor-managers’, directing one of the last true ‘weekly reps’.
A 50s schoolgirl fan remembers him welcoming the audience in style, wearing evening dress and with a swirling black velvet cloak; he seemed to her a ‘creature from another planet’! His daughter, Val Shelley, (herself highly regarded for her portrayal of roles such as Amanda in The Glass Menagerie by Tenessee Williams and Marlene in Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls, both at The Old Fire Station theatre in George Street), speaks of her father as a formidable man of the theatre. “He always had a very deep and imposing voice,” she says, “full of sound and fury … He was eccentric and humorous, and definitely a ladies’ man!”
Frank Shelley kept the Playhouse afloat with a programme of middle-ranking plays, thrillers and farces, but, beset by financial and theatrical problems, left in 1954. On his final day he made a memorable speech, recalled by the comedian, Ronnie Barker – who started his career playing walk-on parts under Frank’s direction – in his autobiography, Dancing in the Moonlight. “The trouble with Oxford is, what with amateur dramatic and operatic companies, and the bloody university,” here his voice increased several hundred decibels on the expletive, “there are far too many effing amateurs!”
A golden period followed in 1956 with the arrival of Frank Hauser, who in his very first season directed, among other plays, Electra by Giraudoux, Medea by Jean Anouilh and Ionesco’s The Lesson – three powerful European classics. Hauser was director of the Meadow Players, as the resident company was then called, for eight years. During that time he did not once renege on his artistic principles, despite the financial and political problems - meeting the demands of the University, the Arts Council, the City and County Councils - which were never far away.
Hauser’s formidable repertoire, together with that of his fellow-director, Minos Volonakis, attracted a loyal audience, as did his recruitment of ‘glamour casts’. Actors included Dirk Bogarde, Richard Burton, Diane Cilento, Sean Connery, Judi Dench, Leo McKern, Ian McKellan, Leonard Rossiter, Prunella Scales and Sybil Thorndike, to name but a few. Hauser also attracted a talented group of theatre technicians, lighting designers and stage craftsmen, all of whom gave unstinting support to very original and demanding projects. To quote Sheila Robbins, who with her mother, Betty, headed the formidable wardrobe team, “It was like a family. Everybody knew everybody and actors were happy to come back year after year.”
I’ve chosen just one small nugget from this theatrical treasure trove: Racine’s Phedre (1965), with Barbara Jefford in the title role, playing on a spare set designed by the celebrated scenic artist, Yolanda Sonnabend. Barbara Jefford and her husband, John Turner, (who played Theseus), were a very special theatrical couple who returned many times to act under Hauser’s direction. And, as Gerard Gould recalls, Phedre was probably Jefford’s finest role.
Hauser, like all true impresarios, used talent wherever he found it, and in Gerard Gould he had located an expert in French theatre, a reputable local amateur director and teacher of drama. Apparently Jefford was becoming nervous as she confronted the enormity – the notoriety! - of the queen who develops an incestuous love for her son, Hippolytus, played by Simon Ward. Gerard studied the text with her, they shared ideas and decided eventually that she should focus on Phedre’s ‘douleur’ rather than her ‘fureur’ as the play progressed. Imbued with greater confidence, Jefford went on to devote all her inner reserves to the role, proving to be a tragic actress of first rank. She has now worked with the Peter Halls/Peter Brooks/Trevor Nunns of this world, but recalled in a recent conversation with Gerard that ‘Frank was the finest director I’ve ever worked with.’
One of the major events of student theatre in the 60s was Neville Coghill’s production of Marlowe’s Dr Faustus, with his former student, Richard Burton, in the title role, and Burton’s wife, Elizabeth Taylor, as Helen of Troy. As student choreographer for the production, I remember the very special atmosphere created by the couple, who took over a floor at the Randolph Hotel for nightly entertainment of the cast and other star-struck groupies!
Dr Faustus 1966. The Author is next to Liz Taylor
“Rehearsals took place in the Police Station gym, as this was considered to be the safest place in Oxford,” says children’s author, David Wood, who played Wagner, Faustus’ servant. “After rehearsals we would all go the pub across the road for a pint. Richard and Elizabeth seemed to enjoy the fact that the locals didn’t bat an eyelid – they seemed totally oblivious to their presence! I remember Gaston, the chauffeur and personal Gofer, paying the barman for any drinks bought. The Burtons, like royalty, didn’t carry money …”
I also have vivid memories of standing in the wings to check the dancers and watching Elizabeth Taylor enter as Helen of Troy. Helen, according to legend the most beautiful woman in the world, is Faustus’ very last treat before he fulfils his bargain with the Devil and delivers up his soul. The role is non-speaking, (fortunately in this case, according to some more acerbic critics!) The character simply enters and walks across the stage to Faustus, but her presence gives rise to the most famous speech in the play: ‘Was this the face that launched a thousand ships?’ Faustus commands Helen to ‘make me immortal with a kiss’, here granting us the opportunity to witness a magic kiss between two of the world’s most beautiful people, (what many in the audience had been waiting for!) and then utters ecstatically, ‘Her lips suck forth my soul … Come, Helen, come, give me my soul again.’ And in case we had missed it here was the chance to see it all over again.
Miss Taylor would have spent over an hour in her dressing-room each night preparing for her entrance, at which point she was helped by a student stage-hand to rise up through a trap-door onto the stage ‘in a cloud of property smoke’. Her wardrobe mistress, her make-up lady, her hairdresser, her body-guard and Gaston would have accompanied her into the bowels of the theatre. Then, her entrance safely made, they would all rush upstairs back-stage and into the wings front of stage where they would take up positions ready to whisk her back to her dressing room. Once off stage she would relax (with a stiff drink?) for the last minutes of the play, before taking curtain-calls with her husband and the student cast. What it is to be a star!
The production was visually stunning, there was an especially composed score – the first time for me to enjoy working with a live composer – and Richard Burton’s voice was magnificent as he spoke Faustus’ monologues. Yet Professor Coghill, it seemed to me, had relied too much on the lustre of his stars, the extravagance of the set and costume, while his approach as director remained too much that of an academic to make the text ‘come alive’ for his audience. Press commentary was generally less than luke-warm. Bernard Levin in the Daily Mail remarked that ‘Burton is chirpy and virile, but thin, unmusical, unmoving and desperately even … Miss Taylor walks on as Helen of Troy and looks fetching – though not perhaps worthy of damnation.’ More caustic was Arthur Thirkell in the Daily Mirror: ‘The Seven Deadly Sins are paraded before Faustus. Boredom was not among them. It should have been. It had pride of place.’
Meanwhile, back in the ‘real world’, the Meadow Players continued to mount and tour outstanding productions, with performances often transferring to London. But Hauser was under pressure from all sides and the company eventually folded in 1974. The final summer season ended with Hauser’s brilliant production of The Wolf by Hungarian dramatist, Ferenc Molnar, the cast consisting of Edward Woodward, Leo McKern and Judi Dench. On its transfer to London the same Arthur Thirkell who had been so scathing about the Burton/Taylor Dr Faustus called it ‘one of the most glittering comedies to grace the London stage.’
The end of an era …
Gordon McDougall, elected to succeed Hauser, formed a new company, Anvil Productions, and went on to direct, tour and transfer to London plays which were, in general, critically acclaimed but failed to put bums on seats. One of the most prestigious was a Brecht/Weill Happy End in 1975. This starred a young Bob Hoskins, who played the gangster, Bill Cracker, ‘to the nasal life’, according to the critic, Michael Billington. And there was a profoundly moving production – still in vivid in my memory - of the play Mephisto (based on the novel by Klaus Mann) conceived by Ariane Mnouchkine, director of the famous Theatre du Soleil in Paris. Telling the story of a German actor who sold his soul to the Nazis, the play revealed McDougall at his ‘Brechtian’ best, with a superb cast of actors/musicians and a strikingly expressionist set and costumes by Nadine Bayliss, designer for the Royal Ballet.
Credit: Nick Holmes
McDougall was to leave in 1983. Other talented directors came and went, but the Playhouse closed its doors - for the very last time (?) - in 1987.
However, failing to cope with the many problems that continued to dog the Playhouse, McDougall left in 1983. Other talented directors came and went, touring acclaimed plays, but eventually the Playhouse closed its doors – for the very last time (?) - in 1987.
After two years of darkness, another era, notable for the optimism and dedication of the people involved – not themselves actors or artistic directors (!) – began and prospers to the present day. Massive efforts to campaign and fund-raise finally led to the registration of the Oxford Playhouse Trust as an independent company, awarded charitable status in 1989. Tish Francis and Heather Beeby were made Joint Directors and since then the theatre has not looked back!
The Playhouse now has a reputation as a venue for national and international companies, while continuing to guard its links with the community and University. As a former dancer and Physical Theatre aficionado, highlights for me have included DV8’s first performance in 1995, Enter Achilles, a stunning dance piece concerning male attitudes, and the many projects of Theatre de Complicite, Street of Crocodiles and The Winter’s Tale among the most memorable. New dance companies continue to amaze: Hofesh Schechter, for example, last autumn thrilled audiences with his powerful ideas and new dance techniques.
I have enjoyed classics by national groups: Shared Experience’s Jane Eyre, all-male Shakespeare directed by Edward Hall (Sir Peter’s son), and political theatre such as Max Stafford-Clarke’s The Permanent Way, a castigation of the privatised rail system and the personal tragedies caused. At the time of writing I am looking forward to a Stafford-Clarke re-imagining of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera: The Convict’s Opera, set on a convict ship bound for Australia.
Of the international canon perhaps a 2005 production of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya by the Maly Theatre of St Petersburg stands out. In Michelle Dickson’s words, this was “poetic but utterly believable, ensemble work at its best”. For me, as for Michelle, the use of Russian served but to heighten the poetic quality of the piece. I am now anticipating Racine’s Andromaque, to be performed in French by Peter Brook’s Bouffes du Nord in collaboration with Cheek by Jowl. ‘Quel embarrass de richesses!’ as we say in the trade …
Andromaque - March 2009
The Playhouse team has ambitious plans for the future, involving all ages and backgrounds. There is a Youth Theatre, 16 – 22, a developing project for the under 4s in the Burton-Taylor Theatre - the space made available by the Burtons’ generosity over forty years ago - and even weekly Teapot Tinies’ music sessions, so future support for the theatre seems assured!
The atmosphere is totally different from long ago in 1965, when a documentary was made about Frank Hauser. Judi Dench and John Turner were performing in Hauser’s production of Ben Johnson’s The Alchemist and a journalist went to Lady Margaret Hall where he questioned the lady tutor, “You must be studying The Alchemist because it’s being acted now at the Playhouse?” “Oh, is it?” was the tutor’s polite response …
Credit: Nick Holmes
But despite the general aloofness of the University, good things were beginning to happen in the 60s to attract younger audiences …Together with Frank Hauser, Gerard Gould, appointed England’s first County Drama Advisor, established the Young Playhouse Association, which initially inspired Tish Francis with her love for the theatre. It was a clause in actors’ contracts at that time that they should visit schools to discuss current plays. Imagine the excitement of chatting with Judi Dench, Ian McKellan and Ian McShane as they took a break from rehearsing Arbuzov’s The Promise, one of Hauser’s most remarkable productions! According to Gerard the actors were quite terrified as they got into the van destined for the den of teenagers waiting for them …
So perhaps it is not so very different after all. I have to admit that I found myself instinctively recoiling - in my conversation with Michelle – when she spoke of the theatre as a ‘business’. As an unreformed 60s hippie I like to think of theatre as an undefiled ‘art form’, and have been very happy to work myself with unpaid actors for ‘as long as it takes to get things right’ for performance. Amateur theatre is now one of the very few things that people do for love, not money, and long may it continue!
But I will leave the final word with Michelle as she extols the riches of the current Playhouse season and seasons to come, “ … full of great live performances: there’s plenty to absorb the mind, make you laugh, move you and fill you with memories.”
Could we ask for more?
With thanks to Michelle Dickson, Gerard Gould, Kayleigh Hellin and Val Shelley.
Acknowledgement: Don Chapman, Oxford Playhouse. (Hertfordshire: Univ of Hertfordshire Press, 2008)
- Jackie Keirs
3 Responses to “Plays and Players: Celebrating 70 Years of The Oxford Playhouse”
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Dear Jackie,
I’m the co-author with Frank Hauser of the book “Notes on Directing.” So glad to see your wonderful article!
Could you kindly be in touch with me? I’m painfully curious to find out more about that documentary with Frank that you reference in the article.
I’d also like to share an amusing story with you regarding The Playhouse, Tom Stoppard, Frank Hauser, and R&G Are Dead.
Thank you!
Warm regards,
Russell
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