London Calling with Champagne Charlie: Plague Over England

London Calling with Champagne Charlie – Dateline: 5^th March 2009

Nicholas de Jongh The National Theatre critic has penned to great success ‘Plague over England’. It’s a look at a life, the law, ‘celebrity’ at a time when homosexuality, the role of a well known figure, ‘public morals’ were being challenged from all sides.

There has not been a play in the West End written by a critic for 57 years. 'Riverline' was seen in 1952 and written by Charles Morgan Times critic. The work is based around the controversial 1953 conviction of Sir John Gielgud, for persistently importuning men for immoral purposes. Celia Imrie portrays Sybil Thorndike, the actress with whom Gielgud (Michael Feast) was poised to appear in the West End in a play he was directing and starring in, while Simon Dutton plays the famed producer Binkie Beaumont. The play ran for a completely sold out 4 week season at the Finborough Theatre in Feb/ March 2008. Now in the West End it is attracting sell out audiences.

More than just a dramatisation of a scandalous event in one actor's life, Plague over England shows how Gielgud's arrest played a small but distinct part in the battle to make homosexuality legal. It captures the spirit of Britain in the early 1950s when judges, politicians and the national press were describing homosexuality as a cancer, an epidemic and a threat to national life.  It is an insight into the changes in social attitudes to gay life in the last fifty years. 

I caught up with its director Tamara Harvey who cast Michael Feast as Sir John Gielgud and David Burt, Simon Dutton, Celia Imrie as Dame Sybil Thorndike in the midst of reading for new work. Brimming with success she was reflective on the journey from page to stage which is never smooth. But, in this case was very rewarding and satisfying on all counts – a rare occurrence when compromise and market pressure are the sign of the times.

Champagne Charlie: Why, when we live in such a different cultural / sexual climate do you think Plague over England is still relevant? 

Tamara Harvey: In one of the reviews in a national newspaper for the current production, a critic wrote, 'I can cope with most things on stage - rape, torture, the plays of David Hare - but I still have to lower my gaze at men kissing.' At the Republican National Convention last autumn, Ken Blackwell said, 'I believe homosexuality is a compulsion that can be contained, repressed or changed'. The Federal Government of the United States still does not recognise gay marriage. I would love to think that we live in a different cultural/sexual climate and of course in many ways we do, but sadly it seems the views of many - including those who represent their fellow countrymen in the world of politics and those who express their opinions in the national press - are far less different from views held in the 1950s than we would hope. I've frankly been shocked by how homophobic many people still are. For those that aren't, Plague Over England offers a landscape of a time not so very long ago when England and America were far less open to homosexuality than they are now and, on a different note, an intimate portrait of the men and women who lived then in the worlds of theatre and politics.

 

Champagne Charlie: When did you first get the script and what were your first thoughts on reading it?

Tamara Harvey : I was sent the script in October 2007. I thought it was extremely touching, rather jumbled in places and had, at its heart, a heartfelt and poignant portrayal both of Gielgud and of others of his time. The moment in the play that made me wants to direct it was when Gielgud finds himself unable to step onstage for fear of the abuse that the audience may hurl at him. Sybil Thorndike comes into the wings to lead him onstage and says, 'Take my hand. They'd never dare boo me.' They walk forwards together and we hear the audience rise to their feet in a wave of applause and bravos. It's a moment that still makes me catch my breath every time I see it - such friendship, such daring and such a surprising, heart-warming response from a public that might have turned their back on Gielgud but chose instead to welcome him with open arms.

Champagne Charlie: Do you approach all plays in a different or the same way or did this require a different way of working? 

Tamara Harvey: 
I approach each play I direct in a different way. There are similarities of course - I read them over and over, find out as much as I can about the characters and the world they inhabit, work with the designers to create our world for the stage - but every play demands a new approach. This one involved quite a lot of script development and workshopping before and during rehearsals and a large amount of research - particularly because so many of the characters are based on real people.

Champagne Charlie: Was there much time spent on running a workshop with it or are all the lines as in they appear in the play? 

Tamara Harvey: There was a lot of script development. One of the characters from the draft I was originally sent was cut, various scenes were added, merged or left out altogether, whole swathes of the play were completely reordered. We did a reading in December 2007 that led to a lot of changes and then continued to develop it through both the rehearsals for the Finborough and then before and during the rehearsals for the West End. Nick (de Jongh, the playwright) had also been through two readings before I came on board, both of which starred Jasper Britton (who would go on to play the role at the Finborough) as Gielgud, so both Nick and Jasper were enormously helpful in steering the play through its various forms. I did, however, make Nick a promise the very first time we met. At that point he'd taken notes on the play from so many different people that he was beginning to lose sight of what he'd set out to write in the first place. With any new play I think there's a danger that different people give the playwright different notes that lead him or her towards the play that those people would have written rather than the play that the playwright wanted to create. For example, several people had suggested to Nick that he cut out all of the elements that didn't relate directly to the Gielgud story and make it a portrait of the man rather than a landscape of a time. I promised Nick that I would strive throughout the development and rehearsal process to stay true to the story that he wanted to tell and the way in which he wanted to tell it.

Champagne Charlie: Why has the play resonated so well with audiences? 

Tamara Harvey: It's a cracking good story with a large and colourful cast of characters, a lively dose of comedy, two engaging love stories and a very strong political and historical element. Plus we’ve all done something at some point that has shaken us to our very core – something shameful or destructive or humiliating – and we’ve all been in love. So there are parts of each of the storylines that we can relate to.  

Champagne Charlie: Technically did it present any specific problems compared to work you'd done in the past? 

Tamara Harvey: There are sixteen scenes in the first half and twelve scenes in the second; those scenes encompass Hyde Park, a courtroom, a rehearsal room, a public lavatory, a police station, a club for bohemian gentlemen, an old boys' club, St James' Park, Gielgud's flat, the street outside the Haymarket Theatre, Binkie Beaumont's office, Highgate Hill, backstage at the Haymarket (both Sybil and Gielgud's dressing rooms, the wings and the stage), the Home Secretary's office and a private apartment. There are ten actors playing eighteen characters, more cocktails and glasses of wine, whisky, sherry and brandy than I care to count and a huge number of sound and lighting cues! In all probability the challenges that it presented were no greater or smaller than those of productions I've done in the past but there were times when it seemed a little tricky…

Champagne Charlie: You've had a lot of success with groups like The Factory - why are such set ups proving so popular? 

Tamara Harvey: The Factory is, I believe, unique. And its success is partly thanks to the drive and passion of the two actors who founded it, Alex Hassell and Tim Evans, and partly thanks to the brilliance of Tim Carroll, the incredible director who inspired it. The joy of it is that all of those involved are involved not because we’re getting paid (we aren't!) but because we’re passionate about theatre and the act of creating it and we’re dedicated to exploring that in each and every way possible. Partly through necessity and partly through a desire to do things differently, Alex and Tim chose to make it all about the process rather than the final product and audiences have responded to that in an amazing way - they get to see work that is constantly evolving and developing - that is never a finished piece - and I think there's an enormous power in that shared experience of something that is entirely of the moment.

 

Champagne Charlie: What feed back has there been from those close to Sir John on the production? 

Tamara Harvey: I haven't spoken to many people who knew Sir John well, although one very distinguished actor who did was there on opening night in the West End and was extremely positive. Certainly those who knew his work or knew him slightly have been bowled over both by Jasper Britton's performance at the Finborough and by Michael Feast's performance in the West End - the two are very different but both have managed, I believe, to capture the essence of the man. And Michael himself played Ariel to Gielgud’s Prospero and was in the original production of Pinter’s No Man’s Land with both Gielgud and Ralph Richardson, so he’s been a very good barometer. Having said all that, when Nick was asked at a meeting we had some time ago what Gielgud would have thought of the play, he replied that Sir John would probably have found the whole notion – of a play inspired by that particular incident in his life – absurd! 

 

Champagne Charlie: What sort of work was required to move it from the Finborough to its current location? 

Tamara Harvey: Nick produced a new draft of the script, which we then developed further. The designer, Alex Marker, and lighting designer, James Farncombe had to completely rethink - not so much because of the change of size (in fact the proscenium arch of the Duchess Theatre is exactly the same length as the Finborough Theatre, although at the Finborough you have to fit in the seats as well!) but because we were going from a thrust stage to a proscenium arch, which gave the world that we were trying to create a very different feel. We went through many different possible versions of the design - wanting to serve each location without it becoming a production all about scene changes - and we had completely new costume and sound designers so that meant rethinking those elements as well.

 

Champagne Charlie: How long did rehearsals take for this new production and what if anything was changed from the original show? 

Tamara Harvey: We rehearsed for three weeks, which felt like a very short amount of time indeed. The biggest change was the cast - only five out of the original ten cast members came with us to the West End and three of the largest roles - those of Gielgud, Sybil Thorndike and Greg, the schoolboy - are being played by actors new to the production. It was therefore vital - both for them and for the piece as a whole - that we discovered everything anew and allowed the piece to develop in different ways - I hope there was never a sense in the rehearsal room that we were trying to rehash something we'd once done.

 

Champagne Charlie: As a director things don't always go to plan but can now be seen as funny...can you recall moments in any of the productions you've worked on where things have gone wrong but were thanks to the actors skill or just good fortune - put right! 

Tamara Harvey: Oh my goodness - it happens so often (part of the joy of live theatre) that it's hard to think of specific examples! Most recently… there's a moment at the end of the first act when the lights close down until Gielgud is left in a spotlight and he speaks ten lines from Richard II ('What must the King do now?...'). It's a hugely important moment - not only does it end the first act but it's also the only moment in the play when Gielgud turns directly to the audience and, in a sense, appeals for our help. On the second preview, in the midst of the chaos as the poor company were still trying to find their way around the set and the lights and everything else, the furniture was wrongly set at the top of the scene. I gripped the lighting designer's hand so tightly that he yelped - absolutely certain that we were going to end Act I watching an empty spotlight whilst Michael Feast sat two feet away in the dark acting his heart out. Then at the moment when he sat down, when he's just found out that he's on the front page of the newspapers and is in utter despair and confusion, Michael - as though it were part of that emotional turmoil - managed to move his chair to the correct place. Astonishing. I never cease to be surprised by and in awe of the actor's ability to play emotional truth whilst juggling myriad technical demands.

 

Champagne Charlie; What would you like to direct next - a return to the classics or do you want to keep with new writing? 

Tamara Harvey; The next play I'm directing is a new play by Steve Waters, then I'm doing a classic Ayckbourn and then my ideal would be a musical followed by a Shakespeare followed by a new play followed by a Tennessee Williams, followed by... I love the variety of what I do and I just hope I get to keep doing it and never get pigeonholed. Plus when you've just directed a new play, you long for a Shakespeare or some other writer who's no longer around and when you've just directed a Shakespeare, you can't wait to have a writer in the room so you can ask questions! 

 

Champagne Charlie: Are audiences 'changing' due to the recession in what they expect and what producers wish to stage? 

Tamara Harvey: There was a fascinating discussion about this very question on Newsnight Review. I think producers are having to insist upon star names far more, whether that's the writer or the actors or some other element. And I think often audiences will have bought a ticket for one play this month when before they might have seen two - but I suspect that it's foolish to try and guess what is governing that choice. Yes people may well want to lose themselves in heady laughter but they may also be thinking more deeply about our society and the times we live in and want to see the questions they're asking reflected on stage. I think the only thing we can do as theatre practitioners is continue to tell stories that excite and move and challenge us and tell them as strongly and as truthfully as we can.

 

Champagne Charlie: You had some experience working in the US. Do you feel there is a theatrical divide as well as a geographical one or have things / tastes change?

Tamara Harvey: I haven't worked in the US since 2005 and I have no doubt that things have changed enormously since then. It was the little things that I noticed most of all - the far stricter rules about tea breaks, the tradition of having a separate costume and set designer, the ever-brewing coffee machine in the green room. But what I've always admired most is the tradition of internships in the US - the strong and passionate belief in learning through inclusion and experience - the sense of 'come on in then, let's see what you can do' rather than 'go away and prove yourself and then maybe we'll think about letting you peer in through the window'. But of course what I miss most is the coffee!

 

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