Programme – ‘Brief Lives’

This was a very strange one. It was a one-man show in which Roy Dotrice portrayed a seventeenth century scholar or gossip called John Aubrey. Compare the cover picture with the photo of Roy Dotrice on page 12 to admire the talents of the make-up department. I remember it as being very funny and being hugely impressed by the fact that Roy Dotrice remained on stage during the interval supposedly asleep in his chair. It gave me the chance to go down to the front and have a close look at him. The programme contains an interesting piece by Sheridan Morley about the possibility of theatres having Sunday performances, which are still rare today but were illegal back then. The Pan Am ad on page 5 is quite incredibly sexist. As usual at this time the programme is full of ads for cigarettes and restaurants. I notice that trays of coffee were served in the auditorium at the interval, which reminds me how the second acts of plays in those days were often punctuated by the sounds of crockery being accidentally kicked over after being placed beneath seats.