THE OLD STOKE REP

Turbulent Times

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Following the successes of the immediate post-war years, the society passed through a critical period in the early 1950s when, at one point, its continued existence was in jeopardy.

With a falling membership and a heavy burden of debt, a crisis was reached in the 1951-52 season, during which Shaw’s Arms and the Man was the only production.

Rumour has it that several members arranged to meet Laurence Steele in the North Stafford Hotel to discuss with him a list of rules they wished him to agree to. One stipulation was to cease the use of a professional set designer who was being paid to design and build the sets. Steele refused and made the decision to leave the Players, a company he had formed and given his all to for over three decades. He would never step foot in the theatre again. His final performance had been in The Miser in March 1951. A play he had also produced.

Phoenix From The Flames

A major reorganisation followed with an influx of new members, and an ambitious programme of 4 plays was announced for 1952-53, beginning with Mrs. Moonlight and An Inspector Calls. Despite a disastrous fire only two weeks before the opening of the third play – Young Wives Tale – the season ended successfully with Madam Tic Tac.

Confidence and enthusiasm proved infectious, audiences and membership increased, and succeeding seasons saw notable productions including To Dorothy, A Son and The Point of Departure. Alongside this fresh start came a break down in the elitist attitude of the company. Since its early inception the society had very much been linked to the upper classes of the Potteries community. Membership had previously been, almost exclusively, limited to the ‘well to do’.

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It led the way to a more radical approach that the Players themselves recognised in the 1954 programme for To Dorothy, A Son. “For the last two seasons it has been our policy to include one unusual, or rarely performed, play of merit in our programme. Last season, it will be recalled, we presented Benn W. Levy’s charming fantasy Mrs Moonlight with considerable success. This year’s great deal of controversy was aroused when we chose to do W. S. Gibert’s Pygmalion and Galatea.

“Though we are fully aware that the easiest course is to keep to tried and tested box-office successes, we nevertheless feel that most of you would prefer to have the opportunity of seeing, once a year, something a little out-of-the-ordinary.”

In December 1954 the Players presented their next “particularly meritorious play”, Point of Departure by Jean Anouilh, which they described as “good theatre” and “one of the most ambitious productions we have ever attempted”.

The Shock of the New

By the end of the decade this desire to push the boundaries and challenge audiences was cemented with the staging of the original ‘kitchen sink drama’ Look Back In Anger. In 1959 the Players presented the local amateur premiere of this ground-breaking drama written by John Osborne. It proved to be a landmark in local productions. 'It left the audience emotionally exhausted’, wrote the Sentinel critic, ‘these local players show courage’. It was precisely this radical decision-making that helped the company move forward into the Swinging Sixties.