Author Archives: Aisle Seat

Here is another gem from my collection of old programmes. This time it’s from 1972. Noteworthy, apart from the stellar casting, is that the director of this production was John Gielgud.

Colour printing was reserved for the cigarette adverts. The one on the back cover has an interesting reminder of what theatre tickets used to look like. They were small, printed on very thin paper and very easy to lose. Again, the other adverts are fascinating. Dinner, two courses including wine and coffee, was £1.95 at a nearby restaurant. Kenneth Williams was at the Globe theatre. No Sex, Please, We’re British was in the second year of its very long run at the Strand. With Ralph Richardson and Celia Johnson at the Savoy, it seems like another world. As for ‘the best musical in town’, has anyone today ever heard of I and Albert ? There is a feeling throughout that going to the theatre was a ‘posh’ thing to do. Although London theatre is still expensive today, that feeling of ‘poshness’ seems to have gone.

Theatre names change quickly too. The Queens is now the Sondheim, the Globe is now the Gielgud and the Strand is now the Novello. Will we soon have a Dench or a McKellen ?

Perhaps the oddest things in this programme are the reviews of a restaurant in Hampton Court, hardly suitable for a post-show supper, and a book about Cecil Rhodes with no theatrical connection at all.

I had avoided this show for a long time, put off by all the reviews telling me how ‘heart-warming’ it was. It sounded a bit ‘icky’. What a mistake. I finally went to see it after enjoying an excerpt at the Olivier awards and was knocked out. Firstly, I was surprised by how funny it is. Given the subject matter (events surrounding 9/11) this is quite an achievement. I loved it. There is a blackout at the end and when the lights came back on the whole audience were already on their feet. Never seen it happen so fast. Great writing, great performances, great band. Best new musical for ages.

It’s also pretty heart-warming.

I have always kept the programme when I have visited the theatre and I now have a large collection going back to the 1960s. This one is from one of my first visits to a West End show. Click on the image to see the full pdf. As you can see, it cost a shilling (5p) and the best seats in the house cost 35/- (£1.75). I was in the balcony at 6/- (30p). It seems like a bargain price to see so much legendary talent onstage. The seat cost six times the price of the programme. Today programmes cost about £4 but you’ll struggle to find a West End ticket at six times that price.

The advertising is fascinating. The show that had ‘broken all box office records’ is now totally forgotten. The author does not even get a credit in the ad. Most of the advertising is about eating, drinking and smoking and, in the Showguide, we can see that Des O’Connor was at the Palladium, Ginger Rogers was at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and the Black and White Minstrels were threatening a new season at the Victoria Palace.

What I still recall as if it were yesterday is the voice of John Gielgud as he spellbound the audience with an elegiac soliloquy about all that we had lost. Ironically grand performances such as his are now also lost.

I love theatre programmes and am always disappointed when I find that all that is on offer is a copy of the script with a couple of pages of ‘programme material’ at the front. Hats off to theatres like the National, Hampstead and the RSC who still believe that a detailed, informative programme can enhance one’s enjoyment of the show and, of course, can make a great souvenir.

Just seen the new show from Vamos, A Brave Face. As always, it was astonishing to see how much can be conveyed without words and, indeed, without facial expressions. Every aspect of the show is brilliant – the masks, the music, the performances, the ‘message’.

The audience at the Unity Theatre in Liverpool, who not only enjoyed the gentle Vamos humour but were also audibly moved during the show, gave it a well-deserved standing ovation. They are touring all over the country. Go and see it if it’s near you ( or even if it’s far away ).

Just been to see Släpstick at the always interesting HOME theatre in Manchester.

They are a Dutch group of five musicians/clowns and their show is just hilarious. The five-year-olds in the audience loved it. The adults loved it. Brilliantly inventive and the musical and physical skills on display are extraordinary.

They’re not in the UK very often but if you get the chance to see them you MUST go.

Having just seen the wonderful Wise Children at the Old Vic (touring soon, highly recommended) I was reminded what a unique and distinctive director we have in Emma Rice.

Her off the wall approach to what is sometimes unpromising material really is a joy. Her stage version of Brief Encounter ( an adaptation of the film rather than the original short play by Noel Coward ) was funny, moving and very very theatrical.

Who would expect a staged version of some old episodes of Steptoe and Son to be the magical evening that it was ? I was astonished by it. Wise Children is to some extent about theatre and managed to resurrect in me some of the magic I felt, as a child who was rarely taken to the theatre, enjoying the pantomime at the imposing Empire Theatre in Liverpool.

Add to this some entrancing shows in the Sam Wanamaker theatre during her short time in charge of the Globe and you realise that she is one of the most exciting of our current crop of directors. I look forward to some more magic from her new company.

As the Pinter at the Pinter productions are the theatrical event of the season, here’s a Pinter quiz. Identify the plays in which these pairs of characters appear.

Lenny & Sam

Edward & Flora

Riley & Rose

Ben & Gus

Goldberg & McCann

Deeley & Kate

Aston & Mick

Jerry & Emma

Hirst & Spooner

Roote & Lush

Scroll down for the answers.

Lenny and Sam are in The Homecoming

Edward and Flora are in A Slight Ache

Riley and Rose are in The Room

Ben and Gus are in The Dumb Waiter

Goldberg and McCann are in The Birthday Party

Deeley and Kate are in Old Times

Aston and Mick are in The Caretaker

Jerry and Emma are in Betrayal

Hirst and Spooner are in No Man’s Land

Roote and Lush are in The Hothouse

The casting is incredible. In the first two ( of seven ) collections of short plays by Harold Pinter we have Jonjo O’Neill, Paapa Essiedu, Antony Sher, Kate O’Flynn, Russell Tovey, David Suchet and ( the voice of ) Michael Gambon, with a massive line-up of big names still to come in the later collections.

Pinter One is a pretty grim evening with political oppression and torture as its principal subjects with just a little comedy break in a short sketch featuring an anachronistic Donald Trump. The final play, One For The Road, is deeply disturbing and left me wanting to head for the nearest bar for a stiff drink.

Pinter Two consists of two plays which are much more light-hearted. While I enjoyed them, they did seem rather dated. Both written in the sixties, they present attitudes to sexual relationships which seem like historical curiosities today. I’m really looking forward to collections three to seven.

As usual, identify the play and the speaker:

1. The crowd has found the door into the secret garden. Now they will tear up the flowers by the roots, strip the borders and strew them with paper cups and broken bottles.
2. I’ve never heard him called Mr Britten before. Mr Britten. Makes him sound like a body-builder.
3. If you want to learn about Stalin, study Henry VIII. If you want to learn about Mrs Thatcher, know about Hollywood.
4. I heard somebody say we were waiting for Wood. He seems very unpunctual. They were waiting for him yesterday.
5. She was in a very real sense the tallest writer I have ever known. Which is not to say that her stories were tall. They were not. They were short.
6. If all my operas are concerned with the loss of innocence, well, in this one the innocence is – the old man’s.
7. – Everywhere one looks, decadence. I saw a bishop with a moustache the other day.   –  It had to come.
8. I count examinations, even for Oxford and Cambridge, as the enemy of education.
9. Which is man and which is myth ? Is this fact or is it lies ? What is truth and what is fable ? Where is Ruth and where is Mabel ?
10. Mais les chaussures, monsieur, pas sur le lit. Et vos pantalons, s’il vous plait.

Scroll down for the answers.