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One of the many advantages of living on the north-easterly fringes of London is that we still have our local workhouse. Built to provide unpaid work for the dispossessed in return for shelter, it’s now the Vestry House Museum, and reflects the rich history of Waltham Forest. Its fascinating collection complements well the displays at nearby William Morris House, the current national Museum of theYear.
I went last night to the launch of the latest Vestry House exhibition, celebrating the toy factories which flourished here in the early and middle years of the last century – including for instance the one creating the first “Matchbox” series of model cars. This was long before making such things migrated to the Far East, but it’s salutary to note the pay-rates for the (mostly female) factory workers in the late forties. The rate was fourpence and hour, which for a 40-hour week would work out at 13s 4d, or roughly 69p. It’s always tricky to make comparisons of earnings between eras, but that computes out at about £19.50 a week in today’s money. I wonder how that compares with the pay for someone currently making toys in a factory in China?A related activity was the merchandise associated with the media hit shows of the day, which usually meant movies, or more often radio productions. One such hit was the wild west drama “Riders of the Range”,which also had a wide readership – including me at the age of seven or thereabouts – on the back pages of the famous “Eagle” comic. It was the creation of the remarkable Charles Chilton, who left us, aged 95, in January of this year. Another sensational radio project of his was “Journey into Space” – so imaginative, often really scary. Radio at its best is a miles more potent story-teller than television. Chilton also wrote/compiled the radio show which became “Oh What a Lovely War”, staged by Joan Littlewood, filmed by Richard Attenborough, and about to be revived in the West End. I loved the pictures of the actors in the radio studio performing “Riders of the Range” in costume….
Another creative power-house was Clare Venables, a widely-loved and admired director (including a spell in charge of the Sheffield Crucible) with whom I studied at Manchester University, and who died of cancer just 10 years ago. There was a gathering at the Young Vic this week in her memory, and it was lovely to see there a few of the Manchester survivors – actors Joanna Tope and Terry Wilton, and marketing director Tony Barlow. Back home afterwards I rummaged in the photo-archive. A high spot of our student years was taking Stephen Joseph’s production of John Whiting’s play “The Devils” to the international festival at Parma. Our Professor, Hugh Hunt, had arranged for us to use the costumes from the original RSC production, and here is Clare in Dorothy Tutin’s costume as Sister Jeanne, and Terry as Father Grandier in the outfit created for Richard Johnson.
(The shoulder in the third picture belongs to me, in a costume created for Max Adrian)
And so back to the happy grind of playgoing in London with my troupe of alert and eager Americans. At Hampstead it’s a treat to see Anthony Sher perfectly cast – and in fine form – as Sigmund Freud in “Hysteria”. There’s startling work in support from Adrain Schiller, and the brilliant Lydia Wilson, who came through the training at RADA since my time in charge but wow, she’s good!
The show is written and directed by Terry Johnson, the only writer apart from Tom Stoppard who could have pulled off a play about a Jewish psycho-analyst in the dark years of the 1930s in the form of a Whitehall farce. Script, design and performances are all staged with great pace and panache – London theatre at its most apposite.
And then, luckily for us my tireless NYU colleague Mary Jane Walsh had managed to grab – some months ago – tickets for the National transfer at the Apollo, “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time”. It’s a fearsomely difficult show to get into, and when you do it’s not hard to see why: it has more impact than anything I’ve seen this year. 
Marianne Elliot as director steers an immaculate cast, and an outstanding technical and design team. The work incorporates choreography by Scott Graham and Steve Hogget, who together founded Frantic Assembly.
This story, presented with all that high-octane technical and artistic expertise, makes as strong a case as could be for public subsidy. I hadn’t read the book, which deals with a young boy coping with Asperger’s Syndrome, but those who have tell me it’s a sharp, clear adaptation. Only with somewhere like the National taking the initial risk could shows like this and “Warhorse” see the light of day – and of course when they hit the commercial jackpot they ease the need for big subsidy increases in these days of government cuts. Over a third of the NT’s income last year came from national and international commercial collaborations.
Stepping down from the soap-box, a couple of book plugs. I caught up over supper last week with my former RADA colleague Dee Cannon, whose classes de-mystify the all-too-enduring nonsense around Stanislavsky’s analysis of actor-training, and who has an excellent book full of useful thoughts and exercises – recommended as a complement to what we offer at TYA.
A few days after seeing “Curious Incident” Scott Graham came along to talk with the NYU Tisch students about his work on the show, and about Frantic Assembly. Scott‘s refreshingly non-theatrical – he started out as a serious football-player before tacking neatly into physical theatre – and he too has a resourceful book, also strongly recommended. There were bits of “Curious Incident” when I was moved to tears, as I was last year at Hammersmithby the wondrous Frantic Assembly production of Abi Morgan’s “Lovesong”.
A recording of this show, I’m delighted to report, is available at http://www.digitaltheatre.com/production/details/lovesong/play
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