THE OLD STOKE REP

Let Us Go Forward Together

Survival during the war years, in the face of overwhelming difficulties, was due mostly to the tenacity and enthusiasm of members whose determination and spirit could not be crushed by the many responsibilities they had been shouldered, or by the loss of members who joined the forces.

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1940 saw two productions at Beresford Street. The first, a revival of J. M. Barrie’s Dear Brutus, ran for ten nights in February. This was followed in May by Priestley’s domestic comedy When We Are Married, the proceeds of which contributed to the funds of the Red Cross.

 

1941 saw the company present four productions. The first was Aladdin. Described as a ‘pantomime burlesque’ it included “a small chorus of dancers trained by Bob Spear”.

The opening had to be delayed for a week owing to several members of the cast having flu. When it did finally open it was well received. The Evening Sentinel described it as “a most amusing evening” and the President of the Players, Sir Francis Joseph, congratulated the company “upon their sprightly, colourful and tuneful show, which is a welcome relief to the labours and anxieties of wartime”.​​ Not everyone that had reserved their seats for Aladdin actually turned up to see the show. This was highlighted by the Evening Sentinel on Friday 28th March 1941 when they printed a letter received by the Players’ honorary secretary which encouraged the public to 'fulfil their original intention'.

 

The realities of war struck home on Thursday 29th May 1941 when the Evening Sentinel reported that Rep member Neale C. Harrison had been wounded as he carried out his role as a driver in the Royal Engineers.

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Work on the second production of 1941 continued in June, although the company were the first to admit that with members being kept busy “it is a hard task to keep things going”. Not only was there the upkeep of the theatre to think about, there was also the ongoing desire to raise funds for the war effort. On Wednesday 16th July 1941 the Evening Sentinel announced the Players were reviving When We Are Married in aid of the North Staffordshire Prisoners of War fund. The production went on to raise over £163 which was used to ensure that prisoners received a quarterly personal parcel from their families in North Staffordshire. At the time this was estimated to be around 250 men.

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Thunder Rock

August 1941 saw a ‘Full West End Cast’ treading the Rep’s boards as the Old Vic Theatre presented their production of Thunder Rock by Robert Ardrey. Produced by Herbert Marshall and directed by the legendary Tyrone Guthrie the play had been a huge hit in London where it was regarded as a symbol of British resistance. On reading about the play, Winston Churchill sent his Minister of Information, Duff Cooper, and his scientific advisor, Lord Linderman, to see it. Cooper reported back to Churchill, who is said to have told his cabinet “this play is the greatest contribution to British morale there has yet been”. It was secretly arranged that the Treasury Department would fund the show. The BBC also broadcast a live radio production of it to the nation on Monday 15th July 1940. The London production ran at the Globe Theatre (now named the Gielgud) during the worsening Blitz, until the neighbouring Queen’s Theatre (now named the Sondheim) was hit by a German bomb.

The production subsequently toured the U.K. and when it came to Shelton the cast performed eight shows in one week. One performance was dubbed “Spode Night” as the audience was made up of nearly 200 employees of Copeland & Sons Limited. The factory also invited members of the cast to a tour of Spode Works in Stoke. The visit involved two leading members of the Old Vic giving a lecture to the factory workers. Mr. Walter Hudd and Miss Fredda Brilliant sought to dispel the common notion that drama and players are divorced from real life. This included a brief history of drama and concluded with a reminder that the Old Vic company “was trying to bring good drama, reflecting the whole of public life, within the reach of all”.

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The final production of 1941 was another revival. This time it was the return of The Late Christopher Bean which ran for a week in November. An additional performance on Saturday 6th December raised £21 for the Endon and Stockton Brook Red Cross Hospital Supply Depot.

 

Coming of Age

The end of the year saw the Players celebrate their 21st anniversary with a party for members and friends at the theatre. The entertainment was arranged by Laurence Steele and the evening events were compered by Eric Pidduck.

 

Casting Call

In March 1942 the Evening Sentinel published a request from the Players to invite new male members to the theatre in order to complete the casting for their next production. This unnamed show would eventually turn out to be two plays performed over one week in May – Gild The Mask Again and Moliere’s The Mock Doctor.

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When We Are Married (Again)

August 1942 saw the third production of When We Are Married in three years. Presented under the banner “HOLIDAYS AT HOME” the Evening Sentinel described the show as an example of “further entertainment for stay-at-home holidaymakers”. They urged “those who have not seen it at all should not miss this third chance to do so”. The announcement led to an overwhelming demand at the box office which resulted in the company extending the show’s run by adding a further three dates to the original schedule.

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Visit From Another Professional Company

In September 1942, and following a series of musical concerts in North Staffordshire, C.E.M.A. (Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts) announced further sponsored events for the area. This time with a focus on drama. The first of these was a production of Oscar

Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest staged by Basil Langton’s Travelling Repertory Theatre company, who had resided the year previously in Birmingham, performing at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre and in local parks.

The production called at Stoke-on-Trent following a three week tour of various workers’ hostels in the Midlands and the North. Demand for tickets saw them giving three performances at the Shelton theatre over the weekend of 12th – 14th September. The cast featured a young Paul Schofield (who was just twenty years of age at the time) in the role of Algy.

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After the success of The Importance of Being Earnest the Shelton Rep hosted two further touring productions sponsored by C.E.M.A. In late October 1942 local theatregoers had the opportunity to see two George Bernard Shaw comedies – Village Wooing and The Man of Destiny. These plays were produced by Stanford Holme of the Oxford Repertory Company. Holme had been one of the key figures behind the building of the Oxford Repertory Theatre (now known as the Oxford Playhouse) which opened in 1938; the last new theatre to be constructed before the Second World War. Playing the lead in both the Shaw comedies was a well-known radio actor called Walter Hudd who went on to be a successful movie actor in the 1940s and 1950s. The second touring production was another Bernard Shaw play – Arms and the Man –

performed by the Travelling Repertory Theatre and directed by Basil C. Langston. This was the same company that had appeared at the Rep the previous September. Paul Schofield was again one of the cast members. The show ran for two performances on 15th and 16th January 1943.

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​Between April 1943 and April 1944, the Players produced three full length productions – Kick In by Willard Mack, The Unattainable by Somerset Maugham and The Cousin From Nowhere by Edward Kunneke. In October 1944 the company were asked by the local Arts Club to stage a performance of Shall We Join The Ladies? by J. M. Barrie. The Players first production of this play had been eleven years earlier. This particular version was part of an evening’s programme where the audience would get to watch the first act of the unfinished piece and then ask questions of the cast and producer, Laurence Steele. There was also the opportunity to win a book of plays by sending in the best solution for the unfinished play to be judged by a panel of experts.

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March 1945 saw the announcement that the Players were to stage an ambitious venture – a production of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera. The show ran for two weeks and gained a favourable reception. The Evening Sentinel described it as ‘a great success’.

 

An idea germinating as far back as 1928 matured in November 1945 when the first programme for a children’s theatre was given. The show was advertised as “a programme of plays, mimes and songs specially designed for ‘children of all ages’”. Once again the Evening Sentinel was impressed, stating it was “one of the most delightful entertainments so far staged by the Players”.  

 

Eagle-eyed readers of the same newspaper may have spotted two intriguing notices in May and June 1945. Both related to the Players applying to buy several properties in Weaver Street, Hanley with the intention of turning them into a theatre. We can assume that this was an attempt to move to a location that offered more space than Beresford Street.

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Providing further entertainment for children was an objective the society still wished to achieve. In June 1946 the Repertory Players invited Miss Bertha Waddell’s Children’s Theatre Company to perform a programme of folk songs, nursery rhymes, plays, dances and mimes. The Glasgow-based company had been travelling across the length and breadth of Great Britain performing in all kinds of venues, including Buckingham Palace. This was their first visit to North Staffordshire. To ensure each show was unique, the artists – Bertha Waddell, Agnes Leitch, Marjorie Johnston, Gudrun Ure, Elizabeth Cardno and Jenny J. Waddell – preferred to choose items from their extensive repertoire as they went along. Two shows took place at the Repertory Theatre on Saturday 1st June (one in the afternoon and one in the evening) which were enjoyed by children and adults alike. The Evening Sentinel review described how the shows were experienced by young and old: “An adult spectator was best able to judge the effect of the performances by the effect on the children in the audience…The artists, working brilliantly as a team, showed the shrewdest understanding of the child’s mind. They were on terms of perfect intimacy with their young audience from the start, and they never made the fatal mistake of playing down to it. For the grown-up, the performance yielded the dual pleasure of the rapt attention and responsiveness of the children and the beautiful technique and timing of the players.” 

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On Friday 23rd August 1946 the Evening Sentinel published details of the final cast of an upcoming radio production of Arnold Bennett’s Clayhanger. Four of the main characters were due to be played by professional B.B.C. artists with ten North Staffordshire amateurs completing the company. Auditions were held at Hanley Town Hall by the producer Mr. Edward Livesey. One successful applicant was Reo member Cyril Shingler who secured the role of the Narrator. Interestingly, Shingler’s wife was a niece of Arnold Bennett. 

 

In December 1946 long-serving member Kathleen Rochelle was recognised for her work as the Players’ General Secretary at a party which took place on the last night of Dangerous Corner. Cyril Shingler presented her with an inscribed silver dish and several bouquets. The Evening Sentinel reported that Kathleen would continue to work for the society as Players’ Secretary.

 

In 1947 the Repertory Players performed three plays – You Never Can Tell by George Bernard Shaw, Captain Banner by George R. Preedy and Hay Fever by Noel Coward.

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The Playgoers’ Club

In the autumn of 1947 the company introduced The Playgoers’ Club. The idea behind this initiative was to hold ‘club nights’ at the theatre during the winter season. Entertainment in the form of One Act Plays, Recitals, Film Shows and music was arranged with refreshments available “at a small charge”. As well as the opportunity to meet and discuss shared interests it was hoped that the meetings would also uncover “latent talent among the non-playing members who can be cast in the principal productions”. The society could only continue with the voluntary support of members who acted as stewards, refreshment helpers, backstage staff, etc. The idea was shared with the public through the publication of an information booklet and during the run of ‘Hay Fever’ when Miss Louie Morrall, M.B.E. took to the stage during the interval to describe the scheme to audiences.

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The first meeting of The Playgoers’ Club took place at the Repertory Theatre on Saturday 15th November 1947. At this inaugural event three one-act plays – The Kiss by Ronald Jeans, A Charity Committee by Edward Knoblock, and Old Moore’s Almanac by John Tearnain were performed with the casts including new members of the Players. The evening began with formal introductions from Eric Pidduck (President and Chairman) and Laurence Steele (Director). Performances were followed with refreshments and discussions about the plays. The second meeting took place on Saturday 6th December 1947. The focus for this evening was a visit from Harold Needen of the B.B.C. who gave a talk on famous musicians he had worked with. He also demonstrated some of their work by playing selected performances on gramophone records. A third meeting of the Club took place on Saturday 2nd October 1948 at which Laurence Steele gave a talk entitled “The Theatre” where he made reference to past Rep productions.​ The fourth meeting of The Playgoers’ Club was a return visit from Harold Needen (courtesy of the B.B.C.) on Saturday 4th December 1948. The topic this time was “Ballet from the beginning”. A fifth meeting was held on Saturday 29th January 1949 which included eight members of the Club reading The Breadwinner by Somerset Maugham. The final event organised for the Club was a marionette show organised by Laurence and Gladys Steele.

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1948 began with a change of plan. The Players had intended to present Night Over Taos by American playwright Maxwell Anderson. This production was “temporarily postponed” and in its slot they performed Somerset Maugham’s The Sacred Flame.

 

Rep Revivals

In April 1948 the miscellany Ring Up The Curtain featured a revival of A Tale Of The Moor – first produced at The Studio in 1929. In March 1949 there was a revival of Milestones. The company had last performed this play at the Theatre Royal in Hanley twenty five years earlier in March 1924. The final production of the 1940s was another familiar one. For the fourth time in a decade the Players chose to present When We Are Married. Due to the sudden death of Kitty Smith three years earlier the part of Ruby Birtle was recast. Kathleen Rochelle reprised her role of Mrs Northrop, a part she had played twice before in the previous productions of 1941 and 1942. It would be her final major appearance on the Rep stage as just eight months later she was killed in a car crash near Torquay which involved four other members of the Rep.

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