The Bookman But
wisdom lingers
HOULT, N., 1932. NOVELS OF VARYING FLAVOURS. The Bookman,
82(490), pp. 214.
With Miss Beatrix Lehmann’s book we enter a more serious
realm, for certainly the intention of this story is serious. But the characters
move in one of those half-lighted worlds in which there is a great ado of
mystery, though little actual substance.
The hero is a brilliant – so it is alleged – unhappy young man who is presented
to us in a prologue as a child enjoying a visit to Cornwall. At the next remove he is a
successful young playwright, one of the entourage of a beautiful but hectic
young actress. In this section a voice, overcome by emotion, “cracked and
jangled liked splintering glass” and a little later, “A green-faced, mouthing,
gibbering Harry was waiting at the door”.
The cause of the trouble is the inadvertent death of the
actress, and as a result the hero goes forth to revisit Cornwall, and finds again the woman who has
played aunt to them as children, and who apparently has been the ideal of all
his boyish dreams. However, Susan has also a long seated complex – about the
death of a girl-friend – and we dally in Cornwall
some time before a storm, for some reason, makes her decide to yield to his
love.
[quite impressive they mentioned the “girl-friend”!]
CANNAN, J., 1934. COMPLEXES AND COMPLACENCY. The Bookman, ,
pp. 214.
Bookman Rumour of
Heaven
Rumour of heave is a beautifully written, eerie little book,
which tells the strange story of the children of a ballet dancer, who becomes
insane after their birth and dies, leaving them to the care of an absent-minded
literary father in a tumbledown house and tangled garden between the New Forest and the sea. Matter-of-fact people who like a
brisk narrative about prosperous characters will have little patience with it,
but there are others who will find themselves spellbound by the magic with
which Miss Lehmann creates the atmosphere of Princes’ Acre
and long haunted by her pitiful picture of Viola and Hector and their lovable
elder sister who watches over them. For this girl Clare, after great sorrow,
the story ends happily, but even in her happy ending Miss Lehmann shows
freshness and originality. Strange as they are, her characters live, yet one
feels that never in fiction has one met them before. Miss Lehmann knows the
ways of the Forest and gives us some lovely
descriptions of its flowers and birds; and Sherbert, the dog, and Charming, the
old cart horse are delightful beasts.
EUGENE O'NEILL, 1937, Nov 21. " MOURNING BECOMES
ELECTRA". The Observer (1901- 2003), 17. ISSN 00297712.
Mourning becomes
Electra
Mr O’Neill’s modern trilogy on a classical theme is an enormous affair: the long night wears on, and one’s emotions are worn out. It
could be got into three hours: there is a good deal of affectation in the whole
affair, in its title, its length, and in the continuous stepping on the
psychological gas. Mr O’Neill has taken a blood soaked saga of the stone age…
accordingly he rehashed the old story in the Freudian kitchen, and his Electra,
who Euripides married to a local farmer and turned her into a real woman, is
not a human being at all but a Daddy-complex walking. …[complains about changes
to the original plot]
Mr O’Neill, forgetting all this, makes her simply a
luxurious wanton, who picks up a handsome sailor. This diminishes both the play
and the part. If Miss Laura Cowie, as Clytemnestra, could have had some noble
rages, some high poetical protests and resentments her task would have been far
easier. The whole is accompanied by some very percussive and psychological
music, which only suggests to me a bull in a hardware shop. …
Miss Beatrix Lehmann’s Lavinia (Electra in this Orestes) is
tremendous. Handicapped by the dramatist’s too heavy Freudian emphasis, she
cannot humanise the part, but as an abstraction, a mental projection of
daughterly father love and mother hate, her work has the force and the cold
fury of some steel weapon frantically hurled. [Quite possibly the best
description of her acting I’ve read]. … But the burden of the night is carried
by Mr Harris and Miss Lehmann, as the orphans of the Mycenaean storm; his
supple intensity as the shaken man, and her inhuman rigidity as the unshaken
woman are in fine contrast, and each superb in its kind. These performances
must be seen, and the play will certainly be much discussed. Once again we are
much indebted to Mr Ander Hall for a courageous enterprise of highest quality.
Ivor Brown.
Variety Nov 24 1937
Film reviews The rat
Radio pictures release of Imperator Film Prodcution. Ruth
Cahtterton, Anton Walbrook, Rene Ray, Beatrix Lehmann, Mary Clare, Felix
Aylmer, Hugh Miller, Nadie March, George Merritt, J.H. Roberts
With two such stellar names as Ruth Chatterton and Anton
Walbrook, the spoken version of The rat, should have some drawing qualities for
light American picture houses. Over
here, where both stars are well known through their recent picture appearances,
the film’s chances are much greater, because it was produced as a play in the West End 13 years ago by Ivor Novello, who was starred in
it, and later appeared in a silent film version.
Present production isn’t all that might be wished, but has
an adequate cast of West End stage names and
the direction and photography are straight away work without any resort to frills
or furbelows.
Story is claptrap melodrama about a handsome apache, whom
the woman cannot resist. One of the gang is about to be guillotined and sends
for him, begging him to look after his little daughter. He takes the girl to
his garret, where she makes a home for him. One night he encounters a woman of
more means than morals, Ruth Chatterton, who falls in love with him and sends
her protector away. In a pique the discarded lover goes to the garret where the
young girl is and attempts to assault her. Young apache (the rat) enters just as
the girl shoots the man in self defence, coincident with the arrival of the
police.
Girl is arrested and on being charged with murder the rat
gives himself up, condenses he did it and is willing to die for the little
child. In an effective court room scene the lady of means, sans morals,
testifies the Rat couldn’t have done it because he had spent the night with
her. Consternation in court, jury retires and bring in verdict apache not
guilty but young girl convicted but with extenuating circumstances, and she is
given one year in prison. Piece finishes with the Rat promising to wait for
her.
This differs somewhat from the stage version, but the alteration is an
improvement for the present day filmization. In these days of scarcity of quote
pictures of quality, this one should clean up in Britain.
Billboard Dec 11, 1937
London
like O’Neill opus
London Nov 22 = presented by
Amner Hall and produced by Michael Macowan, the first London presentation of Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning becomes Electra drew a good
attendance at the Westminster Theatre. Play runs for five hours with two 15
minute intervals. Performances begin at 7 o’clock.
Beatrix Lehmann gives an intense and marvellous performance
as Lavinia. Other fine jobs are turned in by Mark Dignam, Laura Cowie, Reginald
Tate, Robert Harris, Jean Winstanley, Waldo Wright and Frank Napier.
Mournins is limited to a run of one month and will be
followed by George Bernard Shaw’s You never can tell. – Bert Ross.
The Saturday Review 1 Jan 1938
Atridae a l’americaine
Mourning becomes
Electra
[Lot of over the top prose
about re-writing stories] “Only th superb acting of Miss Laura Cowie in that
part (when will an intelligent manager cast her for Lady Macbeth?) the almost
exaggerated ferocity of Miss Beatrix Lehmann as the modernised Electra, and Mr
Robert Harris’s fine supple sincerity carry the audience over everything. Thus
is resolved the paradox latent in the contrast between the melodramatic
essence of Mourning becomes Electra and the apparent belief of many in that
audience that they are witnessing a real tragedy.
Mr Eugene O’Neill, whose talent for melodramatic scenes in
undeniable, can pride himself on this unique achievement: he has reduced one of
the grandest themes of antiquity to the level of a gangster film. He has thrust
totally out of the story of the Atridae all that is ideal, lofty or religious.
Nothing but the blood and thunder survive, tricked out with a little almost
incredibly poor low comedy. ….
Anonymous1938,
Feb 20. Dramatis Personae. The Observer (1901- 2003), 13. ISSN 00297712.
No more music
Miss Rosamund Lehmann, the novelist, has written her first
play, No more music, which is to be produced by the International Sunday
Theatre at the Duke of York’s today week, and for two subsequent Sundays. She
tells me that is is not, as has been suggested, an adaptation of one of her
novels, but was conceived by her as a play. It takes place in the West Indies, “Why the West Indies? It seemed to me a
place where various conflicting and contrasting characters might come across
one another, gathered there by way of holiday cruises. Do I know my
‘atmosphere’? I stayed in the West Indies a few weeks only; but one can know a
place, by intuition, after one has lived there a few weeks – ore else after one
has lived there for thirty years”. The characters include a painter (“a rather
promiscuous character”) played by Mr Jack Hawkins, a girl attached to him, Miss
Jane Baxter, and another girl – from a very different sphere of life – who
falls in love with him, Miss Beatrix Lehmann.
The play is being produced by a well-known director, Mr
Berthold Viertle, who for the last ten years has been directing films. Among
other achievements, he discovered and directed Miss Nova Pilbeam in Little
friend. Miss Lehmann’s play is his first London stage production, and he tells
me he is amazed at the enthusiasm of English actors, who can put in three
weeks’ intensive rehearsal, almost unpaid, for a play that might possibly only
be seen for two or three Sunday nights, “acting is the only job in the whole
world that is still done with passion”.
[first mention of Berthold and Bea together in a paper]
A, D., 1938, Feb 28. "NO MORE MUSIC": MISS
LEHMANN'S FIRST PLAY. The Manchester
Guardian (1901-1959), 6.
The first play of that sensitive novelist, Miss Rosalind
[sp] Lehmann, must tonight have disappointed all but the most fervent of her
readers, No more music gives but a dusty answer to the playgoer in
quest of a new playwriting talent. It is packed with all the idiosyncrasies of
Miss Lehmann’s four novels, but has nothing like the emotional urgency of any
one of them. Virginal longon is now carried to a grotesque extreme. The
preoccupation with music is done to death by a hero over-fluent at the grand piano.
The author’s “narratory complex” once again invades and pervades her work, so
that not only do her young people do too much bathing but the most neurotic of
them wilfully gets out of her depth and drowns herself for love of an artist
who has a perfectly satisfying mistress already.
The play picturesquely set in the West Indies and staged by
the London International Club at the Duke of York’s – must be said to boil down
to a sultry squabble between the two women for possession of a man. He is a
painter who adds hard drinking to the ladies’ fishlike proclivities. Miss
Beatrix Lehman [sp] plays the more gasping fish and Miss Jane Baxter the more
tolerant one, while Mr Jack Hawkins swims, sinks, and drinks with virtuosity.
In the hotel lounge we are given tittle-tattle which is only too perilously
like the real thing, though it is handled b delightful experts like Mr Morland
Graham and Miss Margaret Rutherford. In the farther background are some nice
natural Negroes and Negresses who serve with good sense, and give, by
implication, a direct answer to the plays over-emotional queries. These are
natural, sane and in tune, whereas the plays white protagonists are keyed
intolerably beyond concert-pitch. A.d.
LEHMANN,
R., 1938, Mar 06. "NO MORE MUSIC". The Observer (1901- 2003), 15.
ISSN 00297712.
To the question, What is love? Miss Rosamond Lehmann and
baleful Aphrodite (who are old collaborators) return less dusty, but not less
poignant, an answer than before. They express it in this play through
well-observed, intelligently-drawn characters, and sharpen it with astringent
comedy. The play is no downright drama, but the work of a writer no less
concerned to show how and why her characters behave than with the tension the
action creates. The scene is a little private hotel on a West Indian island in
the tt tourist season. Strangers meeting there quickly get on to easy or
intimate terms with one another; for the sun-soaked days and tropical nights
are a solvent that breaks down insular resistances and releases conventional
inhibitions. Having met and been amused by the general company, we are quickly
interested in the three principals; Hilda, a gauche bottled-up girl, Jan a
fretfully-amorous artist and Miriam, the delightful girl to whom he is all but
legally married.
Poor Hilda! Jan is too ebullient a fountain of physical and
emotional woosh for the peace of mind of any young woman it happens to splash;
and the grim German grammar, the abstract ideals and chronic loneliness, which
are Hilda’s pitiful defences against emotional assaults, merely leave her the
more vulnerable to Jan’s perfunctory egotism. While Miriam watches, not without
personal pain, the familiar spectacle of cat and mouse, Hilda’s hitherto
starved emotions glut themselves till the choke. The inevitable tragedy is
precipitated by Jan’s tipsy rhetoric during a thunder storm, and with Hilda’s ecstatic leap to death in the sea the action reaches its climax and the play
its true end. Echoes of classical method are sounded by a native eye witness’s
account of the tragedy, and by a final scene – not so successfully contrived –
which cools the dramatic temperature and re-establishes Jan and Miriam on the
old precarious footing.
These three characters are admirably drawn and were notably
well-played. As Jan, Mr Jack Hawkins was fully convincing. His performance was technically assured, emotionally resourceful, and excellently composed. Miss
Beatrix Lehmann’s Hilda, rigid, tormented, possessed, had the embarrassing
vitality of life, Miss Jane Baxter’s Miriam a personal charm that enhanced the
skill of her acting. Mr Morland Graham, …. Here, in short, is a play that
brings to the theatre the gifts of an unusually distinguished novelist and does
not waste them there. H.H.
Anonymous1938, Oct 03. THE PRICE OF SETTLEMENT. The Manchester Guardian
(1901-1959), 9.
The price of
settlement, not paid by us, our danger of forgetting, a notable manifesto,
The following
statement on the international situation was issued yesterday,
In the general
relief that our country has, for the moment, been spared the scourge of war,
we are in danger of forgetting, to our lasting dishonour, the price at which
that blessing has been bought, who has paid that price, and what its payment
may involve in the future.
It is not we who
have paid the material price, or made the immediate sacrifice. The price has
been paid by a civilised, brave, and tolerant people, whose steadfastness and
dignity have evoked the admiration of the whole world; a dignity maintained in
the face of insult, provocation, and menace such as no civilised people in
modern times have ever had to endure. That treatment had not been met by
retaliation, but by concession of a kind never before made by any nation except
as the result of utter military defeat. Only by their restraint and final
sacrifice were we given a temporary respite from the war to the very edge of
which our policy had brought us.
But their
surrender under unbearable pressure from us, their allies under the Covenant,
has involved enormous increase in the power, both absolute and relative, of the
Hitlerite State, rendering the defence of France, so often proclaimed as indispensable to our our own, immeasurably more difficult; especially if the
Fuhrer should decide that German’s security from what he called in his last
speech the poison of democracy compels him to extend to France the policy he
has adopted in Spain.
The surrender of
Czecho-Slovakia has brought us within the reach of a power which has hitherto
openly scorned the very principles of morality and justice upon which Western
civilisation is founded.
If indeed the
only alternatives were war or submission to Hitlerite power, there might be
some who would believe submission, even though it be submission to wrong, the
better course. But we do not believe that that was the alternative. Had our
policy this last six or seven years been different this choice between war or
submission to evil would never have arisen, and we could have preserved peace
together with the effective defence of free and Christian civilisation.
The negotiations have been throughout conducted so as to exclude effective
Parliamentary consultation. Each of the steps, rendering the next more
difficult to avoid, and the final decision, as momentous as any in our history,
have been taken without any real opportunity of consideration by the people of
the Country.
We therefore
desire to record our protest and our determination to stand in future for a
policy which will not expose this country to either dishonour or to disaster.
The statement is signed by the following, among many others,
Beatrix Lehmann
[next to Joseph Needham! Lots of professors, MPs, and titles! But only a
fraction of the names are women, no other actors listed – though Helena BC mum or grandmum
appears to be!]
Anonymous1938,
Oct 27. FOOD FOR SPAIN.
The Manchester
Guardian (1901-1959), 7.
The following statement was issued yesterday
In view of the intention of the Spanish Government to
evacuate the whole of their foreign combatants under the auspices of the league
of nations, we call upon the British Government not to agree to the
confirmation of the Anglo-Italian agreement at least until the withdrawal of
foreign combatants from the insurgents has been equally complete, and is
safeguarded by an effective system of control.
Further, we urge that the wholesale starvation of the civilian population of Spain
brought about by the illegal bombardment of merchant ships and non-military
objectives should be met by the active co-operation of League members at the imitative of Great Britain.
The signatories are:
Beatrix Lehmann [and very similar to last time and include
HG Wells also miss Ellen Wilkinson who I’m sure I’ve seen somewhere]
Anonymous1939, Jan 15. Dramatis Personae. The Observer
(1901- 2003), 11. ISSN 00297712.
The walk alone – ad with reviews.
Grips with suspense and horror… audience spellbound star
Deserves success original and amazingly efficient daily mail
Shivers went up and down the spine a tremendous tour de
force News chronicle
Horrific audience in a breathless and appalled hush
[Evening?] news
Brilliant Beatrix Lehmann electrified us with the most
terrifying acting London
has seen, daily herald
Beatrix Lehmann’s magnificent acting well matched by that of
Carol Goodner.
International
News: CATTO PLAY RECEIVED WELL IN LONDON
BOW. 1939. Variety (Archive: 1905-2000), 133(7), pp. 13.
They walk alone fiendishly
melodramatic thriller by Max Catto, which premed at the Shaftesbury Theatre
(19) was accorded a good reception. However, it looks unlikely for America.
Berthold Viertel directed, with Beatrix Lehmann, Carol
Goodner and Rene Ray staring. Firth Shephard produced.
LONDON THEATRES: THE SHAFTESBURY. 1939. The Stage (Archive:
1880-1959), (3), pp. 10.
Jan 26
The Shaftesbury They
walk alone
On Thursday Jan 19, 1939, Firth shepherd presented…
People with weak nerves or subject to nightmares would be
well advised to stay away from the Shaftesbury, but those with a partiality for
a thrill will obtain full value for their money. The play has reached the West End via the Q. Where it was produced on November 21,
last, and judging by the warm reception accorded it should find favour. Mr
Catto has written a story on original lines, with the result that he has
produced a psychological thriller sufficiently to impress the hardened theatre
goer. It is, too, a very commendable fact in his favour that he achieves his
object without the aid of the usual stage tricks of secret panels, dead bodies,
etc. and the few effects he does employ are not a necessity for the eerie
atmosphere conveyed. The story in itself is improbable, so improbable as in
itself almost to become absurd; but so well written and played is it that it
bears a distinct resemblance to reality. It may be a pity that the identity of
the murderer is known at so early a stage, for although the other characters
are so blissfully short-sighted that not for two acts are their suspicions really
aroused, the audience knows the guilty part. It speaks well, therefore, for the
author’s powers that he maintains the suspense despite the fact that the cat is
out of the bag.
The action… outwardly she is a treasure so far as hard
working domestics go, being hard-working and willing. Secretly, however, she
suffers a Jekyll and Hyde complex, apparently possessing an uncanny attraction
for the male sex and becoming at intermittent periods endowed with great
strength. During these periods she selects a male victim, and after making love
to him strangles him. …A strong scene ensues between the two and the girl is
ordered to leave at once. In revenge she murders the farmer’s young son before
finally being brought to justice.
It can well be imagined that unless told and played in
skilful manner, this grim story could be made indelicate and unsavoury, but it
is revealed in such a way as to eliminate any feeling of actual repulsion
whilst still retaining its full measure of thrilling moments. The cast, with
the exception of one member, remains the same as that which did service at the
Q, and it would be difficult to imagine any improvement being made. Of immense
value is the performance that Beatrix Lehmann gives as the servant girl. Her
portrayal of this peculiar creature is strikingly effective. Although the girl
must be regarded as something vile Miss Lehmann makes her so pathetic an object
that is is possible to feel a measure of pity for her especially when she moans
in her queer voice, “I am afflicted.” Miss Lehmann is here given an opportunity
of adding another to the already long list of remarkable impersonations
standing to her credit. Almost equally important is Carol Goodner’s performance
as Bess. This actress is a tower of strength in a part that offers little or no
glamour to the player, but is nevertheless of vital importance…the production,
by Berthold Viertel, is distinctive, with the attractive and appropriate scenes
designed by Harmann Herry.
OUR, T.C., 1939, Feb 19. "Q" THEATRE'S HISTORY.
The Observer (1901- 2003), 12. ISSN 00297712.
600 plays in 14 years. Mr De Leon on his policy
It is now definitely announced that Karel Capek’s last play
the mother is to brought into the centre of London, to the Garrick Theatre in two weeks’
time. It was produced at the Q theatre in Kew,
last Monday and has been playing to consistently full audiences for the whole
week…
With the mother running at the Garrick there will be three Q
productions in London simultaneously Room for two now at the comedy and They walk alone at the Shaftesbury,
were both originally seen at Kew, and Mr De Leon tells me that there is the
possibility of others….
The Q theatre has now been in operation for fourteen years
under the same management, and recently Mr de Leon took over the running of the
Embassy.
Exchange of plays
The change has many practical advantages. The chief is that
productions can be interchanged – a play running a week at Kew and then going
to Swiss Cottage for a further week, and vice versa.
In the working out this is not always quite as simple as it
sounds. Some plays do not turn out attractive enough to be worth transferring.
Instead finding four plays a month for the Kew Theatre along, Mr de Leon now
has to find five (and sometimes six) for the two theatres together.
Revivals of well-known plays either good plays or very big London successes (not
always exactly the same thing) alternate with quite new plays produced as
experiments.
I asked Mr de Leon if there were any lack of plays
submitted. Apparently there is none. About twenty-five plays a week come into
the Kew Theatre, and a further three or four are recommended to Mr de Leon
personally. They are all read, reported on, and their plots condensed into
careful synopses by readers.
Mr de Leon reads the “possibles” himself, at the rate of ten
or a dozen a week in his reading time.
New plays and revivals
“This occurs in bursts” he says. “It may happen that we work
for a month or two almost entirely with revivals. Then for a month or two we
will produce new plays.”
In the last five years the Q theatre has not been closed for
a single week, and in the fourteen years of its existence has only been closed
for five months, and then on account of repairs and alterations. I asked Mr de
Leon how he found it worth while to keep his theatre open in certain seasons,
say during particularly hot August weeks.
The answer was extremely interesting and is an indication of
the all important line of policy on which the Q has been run.
“Even in August we get audiences to come in, and not
noticeably smaller audiences than at any other time of year. In the course of
years of work we have got a public who are in the habit of going to the
theatre, in the same way as other publics are in the habit of going to the
cinema. Our audience – or at least a large proportion of it – evidently says,
Lets go to the Q and then after it has got there, looks to see what play is
running, just as many of the film public says, Lets go to the cinema tonight,
and then after it has got there, looks to see the title of the film that is
showing.
Cheap prices
“Our whole intention has been to make it easy for them to do
this. Prices are cheap. 5s is the maximum, and by being members of the Theatre
Club, and buying blocks of seats, they can get these at exactly half price for
2s 6d.
“At the Embassy members of the Club get 5s and 6d seats for
3s. This means that if they have seen a bad show (an no manager in the world
can present fifty-two winners out of fifty-two), then can feel that it hasn’t
cost them much – and they have probably come to the theatre in a mood to make
the best of things any how.
“On other occasions, they can feel that, for the mild price
of half-a-crown, they have seen a West End show with a West End cast, which
other people will later be paying 12s 6d
to see in Central London.
They can have seen it easily and effortlessly in other
respects. They come from the neighbourhood, and the theatre is therefore, near
their doors. And they needent put on evening dress. They can “drop in”.
“The result of all these things – as much as the fact that
we have had some brilliant casts at Kew, and a very high percentage of plays
that have later been transferred to the West End – is that we have a public
that comes with regularity once a week to the theatre as a normal
matter-of-course. The theatre has become part of the accepted social life of
the district.”
House full
An illuminating
proof of this is added by Mr de Leon. It is undeniable that some plays do
better than others. A cast with a celebrated West End star in it, or a
particularly attractive or dramatic play, will draw crowded houses every day of
the week at Kew. Three recent plays there –
The mother, Room for Tow and They walk alone with Miss Beatrix Lehmann and Miss
Carol Goodner in it – all had takings on the week within a few pounds of one
another – the “capacity” of the house.
But the
particularly interesting point is that no play for years at Kew
has failed to draw less than just over half that amount- that even with a
comparative failure Mr de Leon can count on getting his small theatre at least
half full.
The West End manager who could even remotely rival this would
be in a unique and happy position. For him the discrepancy between success and
failure is enormous. A large West End theatre
with a hit can take £2000 a week and over. With a failure, the same theatre may
not have a hundred pounds in it, spread over 8 performances.
The problem of
how to get people at least to go and take a look at what his theatre is doing
seems to have been solved by Mr de Leon H.G.
Anonymous1939,
Mar 05. Dramatis Personae. The Observer (1901- 2003), 15. ISSN 00297712.
An interesting
anniversary festivity takes place tonight, the thirty-sixth annual dinner of the
Gallery First Nighters’ Club, at the Criterion Restaurant. The chief speaks
will be Mr Priestly, Miss Edith Evans, Miss Beatrix Lehmann and Miss Elisabeth
Bergner. [German Jewish actress who fled to London
in the 30s, was gorgeous but not very lucky on the London stage, possible connection with Bea?
All the others are people she’d worked with] It is an unusual achievement to
have persuaded Miss Bergner to turn up at a public dinner and speak. She may be
assured that she is following in a long tradition. The Gallery First Nighters
became a club nearly fifty years ago. The guests of honour who have spoke at
their dinners include Miss Ellen Terry, Sir W.S. Gilbert, Sir John
Martin-Harvey, Miss Genevieve Ward, Sir Charles Hawtrey, Miss Nellie Farren
herself (who always referred to the club as her gallery boys) and almost
everyone who has been a stage celebrity for two generations past.
BRITISH
EQUITY. 1939. The Stage (Archive: 1880-1959), (3), pp. 9.
March 30, 1939
The quarterly meeting of the Council was held on Tuesday,
when there were present: Dame May Whitty (in the chair), Felix Aylmer, Jean
Cadell, Franklin Dyall, Dame Sybil Thorndike, Edith Evans, Gwen
Ffrangeon-Davies, Nicholas Hannen, Gordon Harker, Beatrix Lehmann, J.H.
Roberts, Athene Seyler, Barry Sherwood, Alfred M. Wall, Phyllis Zemin, and
Geoffrey Robinson (general secretary).
The council accepted the report of the executive committee for the quarter
ending March 31, 1939.
During the quarter 78 new members had been admitted and 20
legal cases handled. More than £500 had been recovered for members.
Emergency arrangements
A memorandum has been forwarded to the London Theatre
Council embodying suggestions for the continuance of the supply of
entertainment in the event of hostilities.
Provincial Contract
The draft of the proposed Standard Contract having been
passed for approval to organizations concerned, a meeting has been arranged in Manchester on Thursday,
April 20, at the Midland Hotel at 12 noon. British Equity will meet the
expenses of delegate's appointed by companies appearing within a 50 mile radius.
Esher Standard Contract
The London Theatre Council has ruled that contracts may be
prolonged although the run of the play, as envisaged in the original contract may
have been completed and the play subsequently presented in the suburbs. This
decision arises from the extension of runs to theatres offering reduced prices
to the public.
British Equity has suggested that the opportunity be taken
to clarify the contract in its relation to the meaning and extend of the run of
the a play.
Fund for refugees
While supporting this fund the committee took steps to
arrange for putting notices in theatres notifying members that any contribution
they cared to make must be voluntary.
Production shows
The committee has conferred with the Variety Artists
Federation on the subject of productions that are on the borderline between
revue and variety. It is hoped that a satisfactory agreement will be reached.
Performers rights
The question of rights of artists in their performances when
such are reproduced and disseminated by mechanized means will be a matter for
discussion at the 1940 International Labour Conference. It is proposed that
British Equity be represented.
BROWN, I., 1939, Apr 23.
"LITTLE REVUE". The Observer (1901- 2003), 13. ISSN 00297712.
Little Revue by Herbert Farjeon music by Walter leigh.
The little revue certainly does not grow less and the old
hands make light work as deftly as before. Miss Hermione Baddeley is as nimble
as ever in proceeding from the surgical reminiscence of an invalid in Torquay
to the antics of Russian Ballet. Invading Shaftesbury Avenue in “The answer’s a
Lehmann” she may be said to spill the whole bag of Beatrix in a gorgeous
burlesque, and a minute later she is no less gorgeous fiddling while Romany
Roma burns with gipsy love.
... ACTORS EQUITY. 1939. The Stage (Archive: 1880-1959),
(4), pp. 11.
Annual General
meeting
(Folded) June 20
1939 might need to see original at BL
First column
missing
Bea elected for
the new council 1939-1940
487 new members
in the year, compared with 556 previous
Mostly about
standardising payments,
3469 life
members
BRITISH EQUITY. 1939. The Stage (Archive: 1880-1959), (3),
pp. 9.
July 6 1939
British Equity
The first meeting of the new British Equity Council was held
at the association offices on Tuesday, when were present Lewis Casson (in the
chair), Felix Aylmer, Leslie Banks, Frank Cellier, Franklin Dyall, Dame Sybill
Thorndike, Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies, Nicholas Hannen, Beatrix Lehmann, Marie Lohr,
Henry Oscar, Llewellyn Rees, Athene Seyler, Barry Sherwood, Austin Trevor, Ben
Webster, Phyllis Zemin, CB Purdom (gerneal secretary) and Geoffrey Robinson
(assistant secretary)
The Council proceeded with the business of the election of
officers and executive for the year. The president, Godfrey Rearle, and the
Vice-presidens Dame May Whitty and Lewis Casson were unanimously re-elected.
The following were elected to serve on the executive committee… Beatrix
Lehmann… The council then dealt with certain matters referred from the general
meeting.
BRITISH EQUITY. 1939. The Stage (Archive: 1880-1959), (3),
pp. 9.
July 13 1939
A meeting of the
executive committee was held on Tuesday, when were present Lewis Casson (in the
chair, /… Beatrix Lehmann…
Legal cases, The
assistant secretary reported six cases, three of which have been satisfactorily
settled in favour of the members concerned, another is in process of
settlement and two are pending.
New members,
seventy-eight new members have joined the association since the last meeting.
Employment
Twenty-four theatres were open in the West End
last week. 622 members were employed at them, 21 fewer than in the
corresponding week of last year.
BRITISH
EQUITY. 1939. The Stage (Archive: 1880-1959), (3), pp. 11.
July 20 1939
A meeting of the executive committee was held on Tuesday,
when were present Lewis Casson (In the chair) … Beatrix Lehmann…
Legal cases
The general secretary reported on two legal cases
New members
Seven new members and two visiting artists had joined the
Association since the last meeting.
Alien artists
The question of Home Office permission for alien artists to
work was discussed.
Australian AE
A report from Actors Equity of Australia was received.
Employment
Twenty-two theatres were open in the West
End last week and 598 members were employed at them – 82 more than
in the similar week last year.
BRITISH
EQUITY. 1939. The Stage (Archive: 1880-1959), (3), pp. 11.
July 27 1939
A meeting of the executive was held on Tuesday, when there
were present Godfrey Tearle (in the chair) … Beatrix Lehmann…
Military service act
British equity members who are called up under the act are
relieved from payment of subscription during their period of service, and
members who have any difficulties arising out of their service are advised to
communicate with the general secretary
Legal
The general secretary reported on a claim by an artist with
reference to a film engagement.
New members
Seven new members have joined since the last meeting.
Employment
Twenty-two theatres were open in the West
End last week, and 594 members were employed at them, 110 more
than the corresponding week last year.
Radio Review: THE BORDEN MURDERS'. 1939. Variety (Archive:
1905-2000), 135(11), pp. 32.
Variety August 23 1939
With Beatrix Lehmann, Finlay Currie, Thelma Paige, Esmee
Gullan, Bryan Herbert, Jack Lester, Helen Henschel and Sydney Keith
Dramatic reconstruction 40 minutes
Never solved mystery of the brutal killing of Mr and Mrs
Andrew Borden at Fall River,
Mass in 1892 was served up from the original evidence sheets, neatly
reconstructing the events that preceded the murders and the investigation that
followed. Alwyn Whatsley’s script was neither play nor plain narrative, but
introduced the main characters of the affair, though mixing the
cross-examinations to give continuity and unfold the sequences of events. This
way it made gripping dramatic entertainment and allowed the listener to do what
the jury was unable to – pin the guilt with reasonable certainty.
Conviction and sincerity of the program was greatly aided by
the studied acting of Beatrix Lehmann as Lizzie Border, centrepiece of the
notorious tragedy. The circumstance of her long interrogations was given almost
rhythmic intensity by a simple phrase of No sir, repeated again and again in a
deliberate tone in answer to her persistent examiner. Esmee Gullan in character
as the Irish serving woman, scored many points, and the diction of Jack Lester
as the quizzer well conveyed the untiring determination of the law to probe the
affair to its depth. An introduction and summing up, together with connecting remarks, were handles with economy of words by Rupert T Gould, but the pattern
of questions and answer itself developed its own picture of the occurrence for
the listener.
CHIT
CHAT. 1939. The Stage (Archive: 1880-1959), (4), pp. 4.
A meeting of the executive committee was held on Tuesday
when were present Beatrix Lehmann…
Emergency business was dealt with, particularly the
preparation of the Register of Artists for work during war time and war time
theatrical organisation.
A motion was passed to the effect that any arrangements for
war time productions in connextion with entertainments for the services shall
maintain the basic conditions of the Esher Standard Contract.
The position of artists was also considered in relation to
the reopening of theatres under any conditions of decentralisation of
entertainment and it was resolved that the Esher Contract also be applicable to
them.
A further resolution set out that work in the theatres in war time should be
regarded as National Service for all artists over military age or unfit for
active military service.
Anonymous1939,
Sep 08. PLAYS FOR TROOPS. The Manchester
Guardian (1901-1959), 14.
As
was the case twenty five years ago famous actors and actresses and hundreds of
artists are ready to make their contribution to entertain those in the
service. This time, however, concerts, plays, and entertainment generally will
be highly organised on Army lines and centralised under one body, working in
conjunction with the Canteen Board of the Navy, Army and Air Force Institute –
familiar to soldiers….
There
are people on the register like Leslie banks, Robert Donat,.. Beatrix Lehmann
and Dame Sybil Throndike…
BRITISH EQUITY. 1939. The Stage (Archive: 1880-1959), (3),
pp. 7.
October 26 1939
*Check the stage and see if other meetings that she missed
between the two months*
Meeting of the executive
When was present
Godfrey Tearle (in the chair)..> Beatrix Lehmann…
New members
Twelve new
members had joined the association since the last meeting of the committee.
Percentage
payments
It was decided
to inform managers that all proposals for the engagement of artists when the
remuneration of a company as a whole (or as a substantial part of them) is on a
nominal salary plus a percentage basis should be submitted beforehand by the
management to British Equity. Members are advised that they should not enter
into engagements of this kind without evidence that they have British Equity’s
approval.
A cafeteria
The provision of
a central cafeteria for artists who are out of work was considered and the
proposals approved. A definite announcement will be made as soon as possible.
Standard provincial contract
Progress in
regards to the Standard Provincial Contract was reported.
COUNCIL
AND EXECUTIVE MEETINGS. 1939. The Stage (Archive: 1880-1959), (3), pp. 7.
Nov
16 1939
British
equity – Secretary’s notebook
A
young man came the other day to join British Equity on his first engagement in London. He said, “Of course I shall not have to continue paying dues when I am
working in the provinces as I expect to be.” I asked him why he thought that.
He replied, “I am told that Equity hasn’t any control outside London”. In other words, he had got the idea
that Equity was a West End organisation.
I told him some of the facts about our work. Three quarters of it is concerned
with members’ provincial engagements. It is in the provinces (where there is no
controlling body equivalent to the London Theatre Council) that most troubles
arise. For instance last week I spent much time straightening out affairs in a
company on tour. The management contended that after two weeks it was entitled to have a week out (which was last week) without paying salaries. The
contract gave no such right and I pointed out the fact to the management and
its lawyers; but it persisted in its contention, and action will be taken to
recover the arrears of salary, if it is not paid.
The management was surprised when told that had the Provincial Theatre Council
for which we have been working been in existence, it would have been required
to prove what the financial resources were before it could take out a company.
It might have been required to deposit a fortnight’s salaries. In that sense,
Equity has at present no share in control over touring conditions. All the
same, the company, all of who were Equity members, came for help and got it.
Had they been wise they would have come for advice before signing their
contracts.
The next day two members independently arrived to ask whether the terms of
engagement offered them by a repertory management were satisfactory. Each was
asked to take a £10 share in the company. The contracts offered neither of them
any guarantee of employment, the only condition being that each had to part
with £10. These artists were saved from investing their money.
I
do not say that we never have any troubles in London. One loomed up last week involving a
large company. But it was amicably
settled, and many small part players found themselves £2 a week better off.
There are loop holes which have to be close. In my report to the special
general meeting I draw attention to some anomalies in London which are now to be dealt with. By the
way, the report referred to above is being printed in a new quarterly bulletin,
which will be in members hands within ten days. C.B.P.
Council
and Executive Meetings
A
special meeting of the Council of British Equity was held at Imperial
buildings, 56 Kingsway, WC2 on Tuesday afternoon. Godfrey Tearle was in the
chair… Beatrix Lehmann…
The
proposed Actors Theatre Scheme was considered and approved.
The usual weekly meeting of the executive committee was held on Tuesday
Morning, when was present Lewis Casson (in the chair) … Beatrix Lehmann…
Seven
new members had joined the association since the last meeting of the committee.
Various legal cases were reported on. The general secretary reported on a
dispute at a London
theatre that had been satisfactorily settled.
A
deputation from chorus members was received concerning the terms of engagement
in a new London
production.
The
president, Godfrey Tearle, was nominated as Equity’s representative on the Drama
committee of the British Council.
Donations amounting to £17 6s were received for the Equity Luncheons Fund.
Arrangements for starting with luncheons next week were approved.
BRITISH EQUITY. 1939. The Stage (Archive: 1880-1959), (3),
pp. 7.
Nov 23, 1929
Another Secretaries notebook,
Equity Luncheons co-operative scheme
A meeting of the executive committee was held on Tuesday,
when present.. Beatrix Lehman…
Seven new members have joined the association since the last
meeting.
A report was made on work in the West End Theatres
The position arising in connexion with a West
End production was considered.
The arrangements for the Equity luncheons were confirmed and a number of
subscriptions were gratefully acknowledged.
BRITISH EQUITY. 1939. The Stage (Archive: 1880-1959), (3),
pp. 9.
Nov 30 1939
Secretary’s
notebook
Luncheons in
full swing
Article in times
The times had a
cheery leading article last week on the revival of the theatre. The darkness
that fell upon the stage when the war started has been lifted. The contribution
that actors have made to the revival is something the times did not refer to.
To begin with, actors were the first, with the other professional trade unions,
to urge the Government that the ban upon the theatres should be removed,
because the theatre has its part to play in these times of national stress and
strain. The managers were silent then, and ready to sit back and wait. It was
the workers in the theatre who wanted to be up and doing.
When re-opening
became possible and theatres began slowly to light up, it was done with the
ready co-operation of artists. When theatres reopened, artists took a
substantial part in the risks of the enterprise. A paragraph went round the
Press to the effect that West End artists were
in future going to accept Equity’s minimum to enable plays to be done. I
wonder who spread that report? It is true that artists from small to great were
ready to take their share in what was required to get plays going and to keep
the stage alive. And they have done so. I don not think there is a theatre open
in London today where the basis of payment does not leave some if not all the
artists with at least the possibility and usually the actuality of going
without a large part of their proper salaries.
The consequence
of this change in the position of the artist in relation to the at theatrical
industry (as it is called) has to be seen. If the artist is in future to look
for his renumeration in the form of a share of profits his employment becaomes
of a different nature from what it was before the war. I forsee developments
which may have a marked effect upon
the theatre. Of course star players have frequently had such shares in
recognition of their drawing power; but it is a different thing when the
principle is applied to a company as a whole or to as substantial part.
Equity has this problem well in mind, as well as the possibility of attack upon
standards of employment which was anticipated when the war began. The attack
has started; but we have confidence as to the outcome. C.B.P.
A meeting of the
executive committee was held on Tuesday
Beatrix Lehmann,
Fourteen new
members had joined since the last meeting.
A report was made on work in the West End
theatres
A deputation was
received from the chorus members to bring before the committee the attitude of the London Chorus artists in
regard to certain productions in which the standard chorus conditions were not
being observed.
Amongst the matters dealt with by the committee were complaints in regard to rehearsal payments in violation of the Esher Contract, and the Actors Theatre
proposal and ENSA
BRITISH
EQUITY. 1939. The Stage (Archive: 1880-1959), (3), pp. 9.
December
14, 1939
Secretary
notes – on entertaining the troops for free
Meeting
of the executive committee, Tuesday, present… Beatrix Lehmann..
The
conditions with respect to ENSA engagements abroad were considered.
The
question of performances for the troops without pay was again under review.
A
report was considered for work in the west end
A
committee was appointed to deal with cases of hardship in the profession.
The
general secretary reported that twelve new members had joined since the last
meeting.
BRITISH EQUITY. 1939. The Stage (Archive: 1880-1959), (3),
pp. 15.
Dec 29 1939
Secretary’s notebook – fund by US actors to help UK
ones during war hardship. Cheques for £100 were sent.
With the Hollywood Fund, Equity has already started to help
artists who are in immediate trouble. A sub-committee consisting of Beatrix
Lehmann, Marie Ney, Phyllis Zemin, Elizabeth Allan, Athene Seyler, Elliot
Makeham, Austin Trevor, Elliot Mason is administering the fund, and members of
the profession who know artists in need of help should get into touch with a
member of the subcommittee or communicate direct with Eleanor Hallam…
BROWN, I., 1940, Jan 28. At
the Play. The Observer (1901- 2003), 11. ISSN 00297712.
Desire under the elms
Westminster
To mix clay with poetry, animalism with symbolism, is what
this play attempts and, for the most part, remarkably
achieves. There are times when it comes very near to being its own burlesque.
We have heard so much of Cold Comfort Farm-life since it was written that we
are now as ready with a smile as with a treat for all essays in the
pastoral-dismal style, for the hell-with-the-thatch-off steading, and for the
old home… Really the players are on a razor-edge from start to finish and it is
greatly to the credit of this production that they do not fall off.
The story..
Miss Beatrix Lehmann has been chosen to play Abbie and she
flatly contradicts the dramatists description of a “buxom rather grossly
sensual woman”. When Miss Flora Robson played this part at the Gate Theatre, in
a performance of haunting power, she kept Abbie much closer to the earth. Miss
Lehmann cannot help being something more than a peasant. She has a far-away
look, a suggestion of the fay. This Westminster Abbie has a strain of Gothic in
her composition, and as I watched her, I thought what an uncanny performance
Miss Lehmann might give us as Mr Shaw’s St Joan. In so far as acting can be
admirable without really belonging to the play, her rendering of Abbie Putman’s
passions and despair demands all admiration. Because of its exaltation, its
strangeness with beauty, it agrees much better with the symbolism of the elms
than with the prose of the text..
Anonymous1940, Feb 19. OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENCE. The Manchester Guardian (1901-1959), 6.
This evening at the Embassy Theatre at Swiss Cottage, the
Free German League of Culture entertained itself with characteristic
seriousness. The programme contained our three best tragediennes, Miss
Ffrangcon-Davies, and Miss Beatrix Lehmann are of course, two and Dame Sybil
Thorndike delivered some of Medea’s and Hecuba’s tirades and also played a
scene from Ibsen’s ghosts. The proceedings were enlivened by two resourceful
comedians, Mr Reginald Beckwith and Mr Nicholas Phipps.
London
Legit Production Goes Off During January. 1940. The Billboard (Archive:
1894-1960), 52(9), pp. 3-3, 15.
March 2 1940
London Feb 10 – openings took a back seat to
foldings in London’s
theatres during January, the former totalling but eight against 18 of the later.
The foldings included five shows which opened in the month, a sign that any old
thing will not pass muster just because there’s a war on. Some which were
wobbling might have survived but for severe weather conditions…
“Elms an event”
What perhaps may
be termed the dramatic event of the month was the production by Henry Cass (for
Londno Mask Theatre Co) at the Westminster on the 24th of Eugene
O’Neill’s Desire under the elms For
long banned by the Lord Chamberlain, this proved very strong meat to the most
hardened of critics, from whom has come a general chorus of approval for the
work of Beatrix Lehmann as Abbie.
BROWN,
I., 1940, Mar 24. At the Play. The Observer
(1901- 2003), 9. ISSN 00297712.
Still Desire under the elms with Beatrix Lehmann…
Anonymous1940,
May 07. OPERA HOUSE. The Manchester
Guardian (1901-1959), 6.
Desire under the elms It comes as a profound relief one might
truly say as a breath of clean air, in spite of the grim tenseness of its mood.
For this play is unquestionably strong meat, the stark stuff of genuine
tragedy….
But
the honours of this production belong to Beatrix Lehmann as the young wife of
his old age, the instrument of a son’s vengeance for his mother’s death, and
the mother who kills her infant son to break the curse that greed has put on
the whole family. From the first word that she utters the play seems to leap
from mere dialect drama into urgent life….
International:
British Equity Elects. 1940. Variety (Archive: 1905-2000), 138(11), pp. 13.
London
May 7
The council re-elected by British Equity for 1940-41 are
Leslie Banks… Beatrix Lehmann…
Anonymous1941, Mar 05. OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENCE. The Manchester Guardian (1901-1959), 4.
The BBC interviews
A number of actors, band-leaders, and others who broadcast
have been asked by the BBC to withdraw support from the People’s Convention.
Some of them asked whether the step had been decided upon by the BBC Governors
or by the Government. The BBC officials said that it was the Governors’
decision; in one case, I am told, they “denied hotly” that the Government had
anything to do with it….
Mr Michael Redgrave was not asked to submit to the BBC a
copy of the letter of withdrawal he was asked to write to the People’s
Convention. It seems that his interview did not get to that stage. Other people
were asked for copies, which were to be used by the BBC at its discretion. It
was made clear that refusal meant no further employment by the BBC.
About a dozen people are known so far to be concerned. Among them are Mr
Redgrave, Mr Lew Stone, the Dance band leader…
Protests
Miss Beatrix Lehmann and Mr Walter Hudd, themselves
unaffected so far by the BBC ultimatum are helping to organise a protest
through the National Council for Civil Liberties, which has called a public
meeting for March 17. The council will not only deal with the fuss about the
People’s Convention; it will have its say too about Sir Hugh Robertson and
other pacifists. Equity, the Musicians’ Trade Union and other trade unions are
to consider whether they will make formal protests; members other than those
immediately concerned have asked for action. Four hundred members of the
Musician’s union are permanently employed by the BBC
Anonymous1941, Mar 05. B.B.C. "ULTIMATUM" TO
ARTISTS. The Manchester
Guardian (1901-1959), 10.
Refusal to broadcast
Protest against the political veto
Meeting called by the national council for civil liberties
to protest against the BBC’s withdrawal of employment from artists who have
supported the People’s convention… Canon Donaldson, Archdeacon of Westminster,
Miss Beatrix Lehmann and Mr Michael Redgrave also spoke in support of a
resolution asking for additional independent BBC governors and for a statement
that there shall cease to be any political and religious discrimination by the
BBC. The resolution was passed unanimously…
Anonymous1941, Mar 18. COMPROMISE IN INDIA. The Manchester Guardian (1901-1959), 10.
On Easter Saturday that tense three act two character play, Close quarters will be revived for a limited season at the St Martin’s Theatre. The two parts will be played by
Beatrix Lehmann and Carl Stepalnek.
Anonymous1941,
Aug 03. "CLOSE QUARTERS". The Observer (1901- 2003), 7. ISSN
00297712.
“a tragedy in
which murder, wifely devotion, and a dropped glove combine to destroy the peace
of mind of a young married couple, before confession reconciles them in death.
… It calls for both subtle and downright acting, which Miss Beatrix Lehmann and
Mr Karel Stepanek in part supply. Miss Lehmann is most persuasive in repose,
which the writing of the part, and possibly her conception of it, do not often
allow…. The impression of hardness, rather than of strength, left by this
revival may be partly due to the fact that the play has been long on tour in
hazardous circumstances.”
(if
quote double check reference)
International: London Legit Biz Whammo; Name Shows Due;
'Apple sauce' Tops At 22G, Coward's 'Spirit' Steady 8G. 1941. Variety (Archive:
1905-2000), 143(13), pp. 13.
Variety Sept 3
English
adapttion of W.O. Somin’s continental classic was done here, at the Haymarket, four years ago, staring Flora Robson and
Oscar Homolka. Ran for eight months. Not likely to duplicate this with Beatrix
Lehmann and Karel Stepanek, although quite healthy at $2.
A,
D., 1942, Feb 21. "JAM TO-DAY". The Manchester Guardian (1901-1959), 5.
Jam To-day
London, Friday
Kemble, the
great tragedian, was dissuaded from attempting high comedy by the critic who
told him that his smile was like the silver plate on a coffin. Miss Beatrix
Lehmann, the heroine of the new piece at the St. Martin’s Jam To-day has won
her reputation through playing Sophoclean young women in Mr O’Neill’s most
serous plays, glowering damsels in psychopathic modern German tragedies which
could only be seen at the Gate Theatre, and by way of light relief a Cornish mass-murderess
in a popular spine-chiller called They walk alone. In the new comedy, by Messrs
Denis Waldock and Roger Burford, Miss Lehmann is required to be a skittish
young woman married to an archaeologist who oscillates with maddening
regularity between complacency and complaisance. Ilona, as she is called,
dillies with her husband’s secretary and then dallies with a popular novelist
who has accidentally used her name in a sensational novel and is in consequence
threatened with a libel action by the archaeologist. The play dilly-dallies to
no very consequent conclusion, and its last act drags unendingly. But even so
it has some amusing lines and admirable subsidiary parts well played by Frank
Pettingell, Miss Betty Jardine, and Miss Olga Lindo. With these attributes many
a worse-constructed piece has been steered to success by an accepted and
acknowledged comedienne in a leading part. Miss Lehmann is everything but that.
Sombrely she tells her niece what dress to wear at a dance. Balefully as a
Borgia she asks a man to have a drink. Her laughter freezes ours.
BROWN,
I., 1942, Feb 22. At the Play. The Observer
(1901- 2003), 7. ISSN 00297712.
If players
repeat their performances and specialise in a certain type of role, they are
told that type-casting is the plague of the modern theatre, and that it is the
business of actors to act. If they do try something new, they are often scolded
for their courage and told to mind their own business. This is a trifle hard on
the poor player, so let us welcome Miss Beatrix Lehmann’s initiative in
deserting the more severe climbs of her profession for a gambol on the foot
hills of farce, with the reservation that such gallantry may still be unwise.
Does footling altogether become our Electra? On the showing of Jam to-day at the St
Martin’s theatre, I fear not. Miss Lehmann as the naughty wife of
an elderly scholarly husband, flirts gravely, but without conviction, she
conscientiously hammers across the brassy dialogue with which she is supplied.
But this kind of tinkling brass needs a lighter touch that she brought to it on
the first night.
JAM,
T., 1942. THE ST. MARTIN'S. The Stage (Archive: 1880-1959), (3), pp. 1.
Biggest front
page article on the Stage
The initial fact
to be recorded here was a real West End first
night. Nearly every play presented in the West End since the war began, or at
least since London
bombing began, has been tried out in the provinces. But Jam to-day before its public presentation at the St
Martin’s has been seen only once by an audience, and that at a dress rehearsal. It was pleasant for London theatregoers to
feel they were once again assisting at a premier. And the next thing to record
is that the new West End management of Bernard
Delfont and the new pair of dramatists, Denis Waldock and Roger Burford, have
made a very happy start. The new play, though based on an original idea, is
cast in a familiar mould, but the authors have tricked out the pieve with so
much high-spirited and genuinely amusing dialogue, and with so many unexpected
twists and turns, that one can easily forget the unadventurous nature of most of
the details. Just how they divided the task of writing the play must be the
authors’ secret…Thirdly, congratulations can be extended to Beatrix Lehmann,
one Instinctively regards her as a dramatic and even a tragic actress. One remembers her for instance as that tortured soul Emily Bronte in Clemence
Dane’s Wilde Decembers. Or as the vampirish farm servant in that strange play,
They walked by Night (I think they mean They walk alone) or as the emotional
and passionate Abbie in Desire under the elms, or as the bodeful figure in
Mourning becomes Electra, Yet here she is giving a demonstration of skilful
comedy acting. Throughout the play during which she is seldom off the stage,
Miss Lehmann never steps out of her character, never fails to giver precisely
the correct inflection to a word or emphasis to a phrase and seldom, if ever,
fails to be amusing. [!]
Anonymous1942,
Apr 22. THEATRE COUNCIL. The Manchester
Guardian (1901-1959), 7.
The provincial
theatre council, which is to secure cooperation between managers and artists
for safe guarding and development of the theatre was started at a meeting of
the Ministry of Labour and National Service yesterday. Managers will engage
only artists approved by the council and artists will work only for approved
managers… Mr Ernest Bevin (Minister of Labour and National Service) said he
hoped that at the end of the war the living theatre would become one of our
great national institutions…
For the artists
Mr Lewis Casson, Mr Leslie Henson, Miss Beatrix Lehmann, Mr Guy Verney and Miss
Honour Blair.
PROVINCIAL
THEATRE COUNCIL. 1942. The Stage (Archive: 1880-1959), (3), pp. 5.
Provincial
Theatre Council Ministry of labour meeting,
Mr Ernest
Bevin…Beatrix was nominated as a member of the Theatre Council from British
Equity…
Britsh Actors
Equity annual General meeting
Provincial standard contract, provincial theatre council, maintenance of war time
entertainment.
Nearly 600 new
members and total in good standing 1425.
Beatrix elected
to the council again
Standard
contract
The motion to
ratify the Esher Standard Contract for tour seasons in provincial and London suburban theatres
as agreed with the TMA and to approve the constitution of the Provincial Theatre
Council was passed with three dissident votes.
Beatrix Lehmann, proposing the adoption of the motion said “In placing the
provincial contract before you I should just like to refer to the terms of the
draft contract in 1939, As you will see the minimum salary in 1939 was £2 10s
and in 1942 is £3. none of us thought that the present contract is an ideal
one, but in the changing picture of labour and economic conditions no contract
can be ideal. But it is an improvement on the position in 1939. I cannot help
thinking on looking back on the last three years that if we had set up a
provincial council in 1939 despite the terms then offered we should have
progressed beyond the terms now conceded and made up for lost time. Now who
stands outside this contract? The Association of Touring and Producing managers
refused to enter the negotiations. I feel that what they most dislike is
schedule 2. I have always found that on the back of contracts the most vital
and important things are printed. The middle is a tabulation of rights, which
should not be difficult for any actor to memorize. Think over this contract very
carefully and let us all remember not only our responsibilities but our
strength as trade unionists in the ranks of organised labour.
International: Bevin More Ends
Strandings, Sets Up Standard Pay. 1942. Variety (Archive: 1905-2000), 146(11),
pp. 18.
Lord Esher was elected chairman
and council members … Beatrix Lehman.
A minimum wage of $12 is now
guranteed to all touring artists in addition to salary for rehersal and
limitation to the number of weeks out….
CHIT
CHAT. 1942. The Stage (Archive: 1880-1959), (3), pp. 4.
Notes how a different actress,
Chili Bouchier is in Beas part for the
provincial tours of Jam today
Anonymous1942,
Nov 01. NEWS IN BRIEF. The Observer (1901- 2003), 6. ISSN 00297712
Aid to Russia Fund
The British Drama League
announces a second series of poetry readings in aid of Mrs Churchill’s Aid to
Russia Fund. These will be held weekly at 5.15 on Thursdays – beginning this
week – at 9 Fitzroy Square.
Mr T S Elliot inaugurates the series, and he will be followed by Miss Elsie
Fogerty, Mr W. J. Turner, Miss Beatrix Lehmann, students of the RADA Mr
Clifford Turner, and Mr Richard Church, Admission free, collection on behalf of
the fund.
Anonymous1942,
Nov 09. THE SOVIET ANNIVERSARY. The Manchester
Guardian (1901-1959), 2.
Manchester celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary
of the Soviet Revolution yesterday with a meeting at the Hippodrome, Ardwich
organised by the Lord Mayor’s Anglo-Russian Friendship Committee. A United
States Army band opened the proceedings, and between speeches there were songs
by a United States Army quartered, and a moving “Salute to the Soviet
Union” Declaimed by Beatrix Lehmann.
CHIT
CHAT. 1942. The Stage (Archive: 1880-1959), (3), pp. 4.
Brazilian Actors’ Message
At the Hyde Park Hotel last
Thursday a meeting took place to receive an address from the Brazilian theatre
to the artists of our stage. The Address was handed to Lewis Casson, president
of British Equity, by Senhor Paschoal Carlos Magno, who is a playwright as well
as a diplomat. He excpressed his admiration for the way English actors and
actresses had carried on during the air raids. Theirs, he thought should be a
reserved occupation. British artists, under German air bombardment, had neither
abandoned the stage nor given up their mission – that of maintiaing ever higher
the spirit and culture of Britain.
Lewis Casson, who read the
address aid, Art reconciles the nations. Politics separate them…. Amonst the company
were Lord Esher, Dame Irene Vanbrugh, Beatrix Lehman, Athene Seyler, …
J,
E.D.P., 1943, Feb 16. OPERA HOUSE. The Manchester
Guardian (1901-1959), 3.
Uncle Harry
The Quinceys are not a nice
family and Uncle Harry is not a nice man. The two sisters were jealous, nagged
and quarrelled and their brother Harry, though outwardly a town’s wonder
(period 1908) of meekness and affability, was inwardly a monument of
selfishness. …
And if the Quinceys were not a
nice family there is no shadow of doubt about their distinction as played last
night. How formidable, how faithful and how quietly menacing are the tiffs and
jealousies of Martita Hunt as Hester, and how secure and memorable are the
lighter moods of Beatrix Lehmann as the doomed and betrayed Lettie. Compared
with the two sisters Eric Portman as Harry seemed to have little to do except
to be first affable and then, almost too easily, a murderer, but perhaps that
is partly the effect of the ease and ssurance that he brought to the part…
CHIT
CHAT. 1943. The Stage (Archive: 1880-1959), (3), pp. 4.
British Equity Council
The new council for 1943-44 has
been elected as follows… Beatrix Lehman.. These names constitute a very strong
council, except that artists engaged in the provinces are almost entirely
without direct representation.
BRITISH
EQUITY. 1943. The Stage (Archive: 1880-1959), (3), pp. 5.
British Equity
annual general meeting,
Lewis Casson,
The President, was in the chair at the annual general meeting of the British
Actors Equity Association at the Waldorf Hotel, on Tuesday. He was supported on
the platform by Diana Wynyard, Edith Evans, Beatrix Lehman, Llewellyn Rees,
(General Secretatry), J Fisher White, Ivor Ingham, Austin Trevor, Mary Merrall,
and Pearl Bentley…
A discussion
took place on a number of points in the Report and later in the proceedings
Beatrix Lehmann, in behalf of the council, moved Item 4 on the agend and Item
15 (a) in the report which were related to each other.
Item four was To receive a report on the Council proposal for a federation of
unions in the theatre industry and to approve the same
Item 15a was In
view of the obvious benefits which have resulted from closer cooperation
between the various unions during the war the Council have proposed the
formation of a federation of unions in the theatrical industry in order to
provide for consultation and collaboration in all matters of mutual interest.
Miss Lehmann
said: In case there is any confusion in any of our minds I want to repeat that
when we speak of a federation of unions one thing we do not mean is that we
lose our independence or autonomy. One thing that has led us to make this
proposal is that Equity’s afficlation to the Trade Union Congress has opened up
a much wider horizon. A very large task lies ahead. We have a task which is of
educational and cultural value. Also we must bear in mind that help to maintain
not only a healthy theartre, but a healthy wage to assist our returning members
when their service is over. Strength would be added to our views if we worked
in conjunction with people who have so many common interests with us. Important
work is beind done in general consultation. We have just heard there is a
rumour that managers are considering a federation of their associations a
closer liason already exists between the various unions in the theatrical
profession, and this would obviously assist us to understand each other’s
problems. The first steps have already been made. The other unions have
welcomed the proposal that has been made by Equity. We now need your approval.
Member 3,575
CHIT
CHAT. 1943. The Stage (Archive: 1880-1959), (3), pp. 4.
A further
alteration in the date for Charles Killicks revival of Ibsen’s Ghosts in the
English version by Norman Ginsbury at the Duke of York has been made. The
opening will be on Friday June 25, and not June 29 and previously announced.
Dennis Arundell will produce the play, the cast of which is Mrs Alving, Beatrix
Lehmann, Oswald, John Carol, Regina Elizabeth Hunt, Pastor Manders, Edward
Byrne Engstrantd, Henry Herbert, The setting has been designed by Carl.
J, C.T., 1943,
Jun 27. " GHOSTS ". The Observer (1901- 2003), 2. ISSN 00297712.
Ibsen’s play of
a rooted sorrow and a mind diseased needs a firmer performance than it gets at
the Duke of York’s. Until the last scene the production is curiously wan; its
tragice fires burn low. For two acts Miss Beatrix Lehmann’s Mrs Alving has
intensity but little of the expected force. At the close, aided by a credible
Oswald (Mr John Carol) who does not turn the part into a pathological horror,
she is abel to show her full emotional command in the mounting agonies of
sunrise. Unhappily, Mr Edward Byrne, lacking authorit and precisions, is only
the ghost of Manders. … Mr Norman Ginsbury who has made the new version has
planed away most of the roughness in the English text though here and there a
knot remains.
CHIT
CHAT. 1943. The Stage (Archive: 1880-1959), (3), pp. 4.
At the end of the tour Mr
Redgrave will start rehersals with Beatrix Lehmann for Uncle Harry Thomas Job’s thrille, which has been a great success in
America
and on toru with Eric Portman in the leading part. It will be under the
direction of William Armstorng.
CHIT
CHAT. 1944. The Stage (Archive: 1880-1959), (3), pp. 4.
Uncle Harry after a tour beginning on Monday, January 24 at the New
Oxford the west end premiere of the play will be during the week of Feb 28
EDINBURGH. 1944. The Stage (Archive: 1880-1959),
(3), pp. 3.
Lyceum Uncle Harry The appearance of Michael
Redgrave and Beatrix Lehmann in Uncle Harry is an outstanding event. Michael
Redgrave plays the murdere with skill. Beatrix Lehmann as Lettie gives an
artistic performance and other important roles are well played by Rachel
Kempson, Ena Burrill and Susan Richards.
CHIT
CHAT. 1944. The Stage (Archive: 1880-1959), (3), pp. 4.
British Equity
The first equity
meeting to be held in Scotland
was addressed by Beatrix Lehmann and Michael Redgrave at the Athenaeum, Glasgow, last Friday
afternoon. The meeting, which was arranged by Trevenen Peters, until recently
Equity’s provincial organiser, was well attended, and speakers streesed the
need for mainting 100 percent Equity membership in order to raise the
conditions in Scotland, where chorus girls are still paid as little as £2 5s
per week in some companies. Representatives from oter theatrical unions
expressed their good wishes and desire for cooperation with Equity.
J,
C.T., 1944, Apr 02. THEATRE AND LIFE. The Observer (1901- 2003), 2. ISSN
00297712.
Lately, for
three successive weeks, the London theatre has had a Wednesday night crime
ration – murder (pre war) by poison at the Comedy, murder (mid Victorian) by
strangulation at the Lyric and now murder (late Edwardian) again by poison, in Uncle Harry at the Garrick. It must be
said at once that the last play, already successful in New York, has an imaginative quality which
the others lack. Often a murder play goes to work with a blunt instrument, or,
if it seeks to curdle, employs only the dubious methogs of the Fat Boy. Mr
Thomas Job (A Welshman) does not make the usual entry in the crime register.
His people are bitterly, painfully real. We know every turn of Uncle Harry’s
mind from his first appearance in the wan quiet of the prologue (which is also
an epilogue) under the gas light of a northcounty bar room….
Again the girl
Lucy has refused him. When in despair, he seeks to confess, an icily
indifferent Lettie – here Miss Beatrix Lehmann’s aspect is terrifying – repels
him on the eve of her execution…
This is, in its
kind, first class writing for the stage. The play is not hammered violently
into shape: it rises with the menace and the charged silence of a thunder
cloud. The acting fits with the piece. Mr Michael Redgrave (who is also joint
producer with Mr William Armstrong)
finds his best part yet as the repressed brother, triumphant murderer,
haunted man. It is a performance delicately graduated: one recalls the earlier
gaucherie, the stare of half crazed triumph, the collapse in the prison office.
Miss Lehmann is compelling in both Lettie’s horrific archness and her last
bleak detachment…
THE
GARRICK. 1944. The Stage (Archive: 1880-1959), (3), pp. 1.
Front page,
leading article
Uncle Harry March 29
It impressed the
Garrick first night audience as an intensely vivid drama with much subtle and
penetrating characterisation. There are belmsihses the prologue is rather slow
and pedestrian in manner, and the epiologue for all its high dramatic tension,
is marred by irregular legal procedure. But between these episodes the play
steadily mounts through a series of well written scenes to a genuinely exciting
crisit…
This gripping,
unusual drama is grandly acted. Most of the principlas struggle rather grimly
with the Yorkshire accent and – probably
illogically – one felt Mr Michael Redgrave’s tall upstanding figure was not
entirely suited to the part of Harry. This tragic murderer, it seemed, ot to
have been a little man, But Mr Redgrave’s performance is magnificent – perhaps
the best he had done – in its cumulative effect of over wrought nerves. His
final outburst in the prison is enough to life the responsive playgoer out of
his seat with excitement. Beatrix Lehmann, one of our very best tragic
actresses, partners him splendidly as Lettie. In the earlier scenes she gives
an almost frightening edge to the woman’s neurosis; but her deadly, sinister
calm as the prisoner on the eve of legal strangulation is not less calculated
to send a shudder through the spine…
The only
possible fault with the play’s excellent direction by Willaim Armstrong and
Michael Redgrave is that the costumes and domestic settings seem to date from a
period a few years earlier than that of the action.
CHIT CHAT. 1944. The Stage (Archive: 1880-1959), (3), pp. 4.
British Equity
Lewis Casson
will preside at the annual general meeting of Equity tomorrow at the Walforf
Hotel. Resolutions will be moved by Beatrix Lehmann, Michael Redgrave… In order
to carry the proposed alterations to the rules eighty-five member in full
benefit must attend.
CHIT
CHAT. 1944. The Stage (Archive: 1880-1959), (3), pp. 4.
British Equity
As Lewis Casson
observed from the presidential chair at the annual meeting of British Equity
last Friday, the theatrical profession has throughout the past year set and
example of peace and of good manners in a world of war. Llewellyn Rees, the
secretary, called special attention to the drafting of the standard film
contract, the establishment of the Federation of Theatre Unions, and measures
in regard to the employment of children under the new Education Bill. The
council, is Mr Rees noted, taking a lively interesting in the forthcoming Home
Office inquiry on this subject and has suggested an advisory committee composed
of managers and Equity representatives…
The following
are the council for 1944-45 Beatrix Lehmann.
CHIT
CHAT. 1944. The Stage (Archive: 1880-1959), (3), pp. 4.
British Equity
May 25 44
At the first meeting of the new council Lewis Casson was relected president
unopposed, Beatrix Lehmann and Honor Blair were elected vice-presidents. This
is the first time the office of vice president has been held by a chorus
representative.
Film
review: Candles at Nine. 1944. Variety (Archive: 1905-2000), 155(1), pp. 10.
For British
audiences seeking relief from the war this frankly escapist thriller has at
least the merit of a striking performance by Beatrix Lehmann as the femail
killer as sinister as the most menacing on the screen. Generally the artificial
plot and melodramatic situations are made to seem almost plausible by a cast of
seasont trooper in support of Jessie Matthews and John Stuart in the star
roles..But it remains for the housekeeper to make an actual murderous attempt
on the heieres. A ubiquitous detective, John Stuart, who foils the villainess,
wins the girl. Beatrix Lehmann is the sinister housekeeper.
Anonymous1944,
Sep 10. THEATRE NEWS. The Observer (1901- 2003), 2. ISSN 00297712.
Uncle Harry that paragon of murder plays, has resumed its
interrupted run at the Garrick Theatre. Mr Michael Redgrave still gives his
chilling performance of a haunted man, with Miss Beatrix Lehmann and miss Ena
Burrill as his fated sisters.
CHIT
CHAT. 1944. The Stage (Archive: 1880-1959), (3), pp. 4.
British Equity
The monthly
meeting of the members of British Equity will be held at 9 Great Newport Street tomorrow. Beatrix
Lehmann will be in the chair and Llewellyn Rees general secretary will speak on
Equity’s post war plans.
EQUITY
PREPARES. 1944. The Stage (Archive: 1880-1959), (3), pp. 4.
The post war plan outlined by
Robert Young in last week’s issue of the stage was the subject of keen
discussion at the monthly meeting of British Euqity, with Beatrix Lehmann in
the chair. Mr Young, it will be remembered, suggestd that in order to avoid
unemployment among returned actors, and at the same time raise the professional
standard, Equity should insist upon a two year course of training at a dramatic
school for every newcomer…
Mr Young’s suggestion of a
special meeting was accepted by Miss Lehmann as a resolution and unanimously
approved…
