THE OLD STOKE REP

The Stoke-on-Trent Amateur Dramatic Society

To inform ourselves of the early days of the Stoke Repertory Players it is useful to refer to the first attempt (written by one of the founder members Laurence Steele) to chart the history of the society. In 1947 ‘The Playgoers’ Club’ booklet was printed. It told the story of the company up until that point and it begins, “The story of drama in North Staffordshire would be incomplete without recognising the part played by the Stoke-on-Trent Repertory Theatre whose history dates from 1920, when the Stoke-on-Trent Dramatic Society was launched with the performance of “Caste” in Longton Theatre.”

 

‘Longton Theatre’ was in fact the ‘Empire’ (a venue that would reappear much later in the society’s timeline) and the first performance actually took place on Thursday 17th February 1921. It was a matinee show, organised to raise funds for the North Staffordshire Cripples’ Aid Society – an organisation based in Hartshill, Stoke-on-Trent – aimed at supporting the rehabilitation of disabled soldiers and children.

 

The production at the Empire was quickly followed by a revival of Caste in September 1921. This time it was performed at the Assembly Room inside Stoke Town Hall. It was presented for six nights alongside another play, The Chinese Puzzle, with further money being raised for the Cripples'’ Aid Society. This was the first time the company adopted the repertory style of performing two shows in tandem.

 

The company ended the year with a repeat performance of The Chinese Puzzle back at the Empire in Longton, raising money for Newcastle Cripples’ Guild. (This would have been one of the final live events at the theatre as in late 1921 work began on converting the building into a cinema, which opened on 23rd January 1922.)​​ The performance was a resounding success and a Staffordshire Sentinel reporter ended an extensive coverage of all aspects of the first two productions by writing, “One hopes the Stoke-on-Trent Amateur Dramatic Society has come to stay.” The review also makes the following observation, “They are our own local players who deserve encouragement and the plays they present so attractively are typical of the backbone of the English Stage.” Praise indeed.

 

Having confirmed their local reputation for excellence and having decided that they wished to continue their collaboration into a second year, the group entered 1922 with great confidence and a small but significant change to their name. After the Sentinel review had made an extremely favourable comment about the professional quality of their work, they carefully avoided the word ‘amateur’ and became ‘The Stoke-on-Trent Dramatic Society’.

 

The Stoke-on-Trent Dramatic Society

The plan for March 1922 was yet another double bill, this time to be staged at the Assembly Hall (inside King's Hall) in Stoke.  The first play was a light comedy by Cyril Harcourt, A Pair of Silk Stockings, directed by Laurence Steele. The play also offered an opportunity for an in-joke to be shared with the audience. As the curtain rises, a rehearsal is taking place for an amateur production of a well-known play…Caste by Tom Robertson! The second play was The Thief by Cosmo Gordon Lennox, ​directed by Percy Maddox. ​Once more the plays received glowing reviews and the Society even attracted the attention of The Stage, a weekly, London-based, review of entertainment generally and theatre in particular. At a large distance geographically and a month after the two plays were staged, it was easy for mistakes in the brief report to be made. Firstly, the word ‘amateur’ reappeared in the group’s title. Secondly, Percy Maddock was identified as ‘the producer’ and Laurence Steele was named as his ‘assistant’! This simple error in a national newspaper may have exacerbated difficulties in a group where rivalries and mutual jealousies were emerging.

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In May 1922 Stoke-on-Trent Amateur Dramatic Society joined forces with Stoke-on-Trent Amateur Operatic Society to provide the entertainment at a combined charity event – the North Staffordshire Cripples’ Aid Society's Grand Bazaar at Stoke Town Hall.

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On Thursday 31st August 1922 a statement appeared in the Staffordshire Sentinel announcing an upcoming amalgamation of the Stoke-on-Trent Amateur Operatic Society and Stoke-on-Trent Amateur Dramatic Society. It stated that the newly-formed “Stoke-on-Trent Amateur Opera and Dramatic Society” would present Princess Caprice at the Theatre Royal in Hanley in November with all profits going to the North Staffordshire Infirmary. The following day a letter appeared in the same newspaper from Mrs. John Cole (Ray Pierce), a leading member of the Dramatic Society ‘emphatically’ contradicting the story. This was followed by another letter the day afterwards from  G. H. Leese (Honorary Secretary of the Dramatic Society) expressing his ‘surprise’ on reading about the supposed amalgamation. He went on to say that the company “had not been approached in any way in regard to an amalgamation”. The letter gave details of two upcoming productions for January 1923 (The Witness For The Defence and Nothing But The Truth at the Assembly Hall in Stoke) and it reiterated that the Opera and Dramatic Societies were “two separate and distinct bodies”. The letter finished with Leese explaining that the named source of the original statement, Mr. Percy Maddock, “served his connection with this Dramatic Society some months ago”.

 

Contrary to the details announced in the published letter, the next plays from the Stoke-on-Trent Dramatic Society were actually Dear Brutus and Are You A Mason?, staged at the Hippodrome Theatre (formerly the Gordon Theatre) in Stoke. Billed as “the most ambitious dramatic production the Potteries have ever witnessed” they ran for a week in January 1923, raising more money for local charities.

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The Repertory Players

In October 1923 the company staged two further productions at the Assembly Hall in Stoke. The Man Who Stayed At Home and The Man From Toronto were the first shows to be performed under the title of ‘The Repertory Players’. This change of name may have been a direct response to the rumoured amalgamation from the previous year or an attempt to stand out more in an area where there was an abundance of amateur dramatic activity.

 

In 1924 the company hired professional director James Whale (who later found fame in Hollywood) to produce a double bill at the Theatre Royal in Hanley. Alternating performances of Milestones and Jack Straw took place in the first week of March with proceeds going to the North Staffs Infirmary and Cripples’ Aid Society. It was noted in the Staffordshire Sentinel that, although the professional venue had welcomed amateur operatic companies before, it was “the first time that amateur actors have occupied the boards”. James Whale already had a fan in writer (and joint author of Milestones) Arnold Bennett, who was invited by the Players to attend one of their performances. His reply was printed in the Staffordshire Sentinel and included his hope that the play would be ‘a great success’. Unfortunately this was not to be the case. Despite rave reviews the decision to use a professional director and venue resulted in the Players facing ‘crippling debt’ and struggling to survive. Nevertheless, on Wednesday 17th December 1924 the Players made a visit to the Town Hall in Stone, Staffordshire to perform The Man From Toronto to raise funds for the local division of the Girl Guide’s Association.

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1925 saw no productions staged by the company. Instead a number of local businesses rallied around to raise money to help the Players to pay off their debts. On Thursday 28th February Rep members (assisted by the staff of M. Huntbach & Co. Ltd.) held a Whist Drive and Dance at the King’s Hall in Stoke. There were in fact two whist drives which took place at 7.30pm and 10.30pm. Dancing took place from 8.00pm until 2.00am with music provided by Tom Salt’s Dance Orchestra and late night buses were laid on at the end of the night. A large number of ‘valuable prizes’ were offered, including a special prize of £10 for the highest score of the night.

 

1926 began with another social event when the Repertory Players held a dance and supper night at St. Dominic’s High School, Stoke on Wednesday 6th January.

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January 1926 also saw the Repertory Players back on stage at the Assembly Hall in Stoke as they performed two comedies – Penelope and The Young Person In Pink - on alternating nights over the course of a week. They were back at the same venue in October that year to present another comedy, Our Mr. Hopplewhite. In attendance on the opening night was the President of the Players, Sir Francis Joseph, who made a speech congratulating the company on the way they had “weathered a period of considerable difficulty”. He explained to those in attendance that the present series of plays were being produced with the idea of raising a sum of money to enable the Players to “obtain a room and scenery of their own in order that they might be in a position to produce plays regularly”. The following year no productions were staged by the company.

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In February 1928 the Players presented two plays over two weeks at the Church Institute in Stoke. The first was The Cradle Song which was followed by a revival of The Chinese Puzzle with Laurence Steele back in the lead role. On this occasion the proceeds went to the Stoke District Nursing Association. The decision to perform at this new location was due to it having a better stage than previous venues. However, they found that the alternative auditorium was ‘unduly cramped’.

 

The year ended with what the Staffordshire Sentinel described as “an event of considerable importance to those interested in theatrical matters”. They were referring to the Repertory Players’ production of Outward Bound which the company were fortunate in being able to present for the first time in the Potteries. For this play, the Players returned to the Assembly Hall in Stoke with the idea that they could make a few adjustments to improve visibility and acoustics. They used a new stage of their own that was placed in front of the existing (and exceptionally high) one.  Performances of Outward Bound were preceded by a one-act play entitled Thirty Minutes In A Street.

 

In February 1929 the Players performed at the Assembly Room for the very last time when they revived Dear Brutus.

Six years on, only four members of the original cast remained. Over the following months the company made frantic efforts to acquire a space they could both rehearse and perform in. By the end of the year they would begin a new, albeit brief, chapter in their history.

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The Repertory Studio

The search to find their own performance venue came to an end when the opportunity arose for the Players to rent a room on the top floor of the Victorian Free Trade Building in Hanley. At the time the building was owned by the Webberley family and used as a printers and bookshop. The business remained in the family until it was sold in 2016. In terms of its suitability to house theatrical performances, there was strictly limited space for dressing rooms and property storage. On the plus side it did have seating capacity for an audience of 120 people.

 

The latter part of 1929 saw members busy preparing for their first productions in ‘The Studio’ and on Thursday 28th November they presented three short plays – The Devil Among The Skins, A Tale Of The Moor and just the first act of Shall We Join The Ladies?. The following week the Staffordshire Sentinel published a report about the new space. It noted “the only drawback…is the number of steps one has to ascend to reach it”. In reality it involved audience members walking up five flights of stairs.

Aside from this, there were many positives, including attractive furnishings such as decorative paintings and “artistic curtains hung over the windows”. It was also noted that “the stage is a wide and roomy one and should be capable of providing a setting for anything from the storm scene in The Tempest to the little dug-out in Journey’s End”. There is real irony in this final suggestion. The Players would indeed present R. C. Sherriff’s classic war play, but it would be 68 years later, representing the company’s final production at Beresford Street. The report also made mention of the “adequate and commendable” lighting arrangements which were “not yet completed and are in the hands of J. Webberley”.

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There was a mixed reaction to the choice of plays. Ernest Goodwin’s ‘curtain-raiser’ The Devil Among The Skins was considered a popular choice for amateurs and “on the whole is not difficult to perform”. A Tale Of The Moor featured “notable performances from several female members of the company”. The third presentation was J. M. Barrie’s Shall We Join The Ladies? with producer Laurence Steele taking on the lead role. The decision to only perform the first act resulted in the audience being “a little disappointed…to know the denouement”. Overall though, the Players were deemed to be “exceptionally good”.

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The Studio would be the home of the Players until 1932 when they were refused a licence to perform any further plays there. This prompted a serious search to find and establish a permanent home.

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