More Reading and Viewing

I'm currently reading Andrew Marr's book 'A History of Modern Britain.' I read his earlier volume, 'The Making of Modern Britain' which starts with the death of Queen Victoria in 1901 and concludes with the end of the Second World War in 1945. This second book (which, apparently, was written before the other book.) takes up the story in 1945 with the General Election which saw Labour win a landslide victory and Clement Attlee becoming Prime Minister. This administration ushered in the Welfare State, the birth of the N.H.S.,  and National Insurance. I'm not sure this wasn't written to compliment a documentary series which Marr wrote and presented on BBC 1. I think I may have seen it, but, when I saw these two books in The Works in Milton Keynes Shopping Centre I had to buy them. Full-price they cost £9.99 each, but they were selling for £6 for both.  I have to say I love a good bargain, and at that price they were more than a bargain.

Yesterday evening there was a documentary on BBC1 which was a sort of complimentary programme to the drama series 'Call The Midwife,' which gave a background to that series and mentioned the introduction of the National Health Service in 1948, so it was interesting to read about this in the Marr book and hear people talking about this on this programme.

I also learned that in 1947 there was a 'Big Freeze' that winter. Roads were blocked and food had to be rationed, even more than it had been during the war which ended in 1945. Things were certainly extremely tough. It reminds me of the winter of 1962-3. That was exceptionally cold. I lived on a farm and my father had real problems keeping pigeons off the Brussel sprouts which they grew on the farm.  They used what are called gas guns, contraptions which ran on cylinders of what I imagine would have been like caller gas, with a timer, and these things had a charge in them, with a timer, which was let off at a pre-determined length of time and which scared off the pigeons. It was one of these gas-guns which went off in the back of the Land Rover, which my father was driving at the time, and perforated my father's ear-drum and as a result made him profoundly deaf which he was forever after until he died in 1993. He did wear a hearing aid, when he could be bothered to wear it, but his hearing was never the same after that incident, as you can imagine. It must have been a very loud explosion, and in an enclosed space, as it would have been in the back of a vehicle and he would have been sitting quite close if he was driving the Land Rover. 

It was also the year I had my appendix out. I was supposed to go into Victoria Ward at Bedford Hospital over Christmas that year, but fortunately I went in well before Christmas so I could be at home for the Christmas period. I remember that ward, it had tile panels on the walls, each one showing illustrations for nursery rhyme characters. I don't imagine that old Victorian ward is still being used as a children's ward. Anyway, at Rushmoor School which I attended, no doubt after I returned to school in 1963,  the playground became so snowed over because it snowed and then thawed and then froze I seem to remember, the snow became so thick we had to go out and help shovel it off the surface (unlike today, when children don't have to help with anything at school, no doubt they would say it was contravening their 'Human Rights' to have to work, or even help to pick up litter which is something we had to do at school. Anyway, the snow was heaped at one end of the playground, against a wall, and when it was frozen solid, it began to push over the wall. I'm not sure it was able to actually collapse it, but I do remember it was pushed to a quite sharp angle.

Working on Hadrian VII

For some strange unfathomable reason, Pope Benedict's resignation  recently reminded me of the time I worked on a play called "Hadrian VII" when I was  D.S.M. at Ipswich Theatre in the '70's. There is a link. I'm not completely nuts. It's about a man who fantasises about becoming Pope. It was written by Peter Luke, based on a novel by Baron Corvo, writing under the pen name of Frederick Rolfe. It has a somewhat long and convoluted plot which I will not try and unravel here, basically as it really has no bearing on what I am about to relate here, and why. Just to say that as a member of Stage Management at the various theatres where I worked during the 1970's we were expected to assume a variety of roles, from managing 'The Book' (ie, prompting and running the prompt corner and taking rehearsals etc.) to 'propping' (ie. 'plotting' them during rehearsals, setting and strinking during performances as well as sourcing them from various places. That, in itself, is an entirely different story which can take up several more posts when I can stretch my memory back over 40-odd years!) Also, one was expected to move scenery, operate sound and lighting equipment as well as creating off stage 'spot' sound effects, such as gunshots, door-slams etc. On this particular production I was mainly responsible for sound. 

The play opens in the central character, Frederick Rolfe's,  London flat. The middle section of the play then focuses on his fantasy about becoming Pope, and is set in and around the Vatican. The closing scene then returns to the flat from the opening scene. This scene was built on trucks, in two halves, which could be pushed up-stage during the scene-change and an elaborate, fretted wood screen was lowered from the flies to form the backdrop for the Vatican scenes. This piece of flown scenery was extremely heavy. I know. I was one of the Stage Management members who had to haul it in and out during each performance.

Now we had no problems at all with anything during most of the run of the play (I think it ran for two or three weeks, as part of a repertory season of several plays during my time at Ipswich. ) As I have already mentioned I was mainly responsible for sound operating  on this production. This was done from the sound and lighting cubicle at the back of the circle which enabled myself, on sound, to have a really clear view of the stage, although many of my cues were given by the A.S.M. on The Book in the prompt corner.

As part of my job on this show as I mentioned earlier I had to help on the fly floor hauling in this heavy piece of scenery. This was done at the beginning of the play, from the first scene into the mid-section, and then from that section finally into the flat scene at the end. I had done all my sound cues, and on this particular matinee performance I had to as usual set the tape of bells tolling on the tape machine and then run down to the stage and up to the fly floor to haul out the heavy piece of scenery. Rolfe, the central character of the play, is assasinated as part of the plot and the actor playing that character has to do a rapid costume change so he can re-appear in the final scene. To achieve this the actor playing him disappears through a stage trap and off to do his costume change. The cardinals crowd round him after he 'dies' so as to hide from the audience that the actor has gone down through the trap. Then the sound of bells tolling is heard, which is where my sound-operating comes into effect. I have just about enough sound on tape of bells tolling for me to rush down and take out the heavy piece of scenery, but until THAT has been flown out, the two trucked sections with the flat scenery on it cannot be pushed downstage. But on this particular occasion, try as we might, we could not get it to move. One of the rollers over which the ropes which took this piece of scenery in the fly-grid got stuck, so when we hauled on the fly-ropes the piece of scenery went up at a sharp angle, near enough 45 degrees. It simply would not budge, which created real panic on stage as the play could not possibly continue without the correct scenery in place and certainly not with the flown piece at such a precarious angle and then there was the possibility of the tape on the machine which I had started running would run out and then run onto the next sound cue!  Or there was the chance that the flown piece would crash to the stage and put actors and stage managemnt at risk. From what I can remember I think we had to tie off the piece of scenery and then set up the furniture for the final scene in front of the angled screen background. But it was vary hairy, we dashing back to the sound deck to stop the tape! Such are my memories!
I am attempting to rack my brains further. The play was directed by John Southworth and Lionel Thompson played Frederick Rolfe. Pam Ferris, who has since found fame in a  wide range of television productions, most notably Ma in The Darling Buds of May and as Miss Trunchbull in the film version of Matilda, and much more recently in the B.B.C. series Call The Midwife playing the part of Sister Evangelina, had a part in this production and was in many other productions during my time at Ipswich Theatre.