Guardian, Stage, Variety and Observer digitised records July 1959-1962

1959-
Jan 8 1959 the stage
Date changes at the old vic
Macbeth with Michael Hordera and Beatrix Lehmann, is proving very successful and remains in the repertoire indefinitely. Last week this production achieved the unusual figure of 100 per cent of possible attendance (including all seating and all standing in the theatre).

The stage Jan 8 1959
Plays, players and playwrights of 1958 by R. B.l Marriott.
In the same week we had something of our own to talk about – Harold Pinter’s the birthday party, a comedy-drama showing outstanding talent but which, at the Lyric Hammersmith, was poorly treated by the public…
Tennesse Williams was at his most odd and clinical in Garden District at the Arts, when Beatrix Lehmann did striking work…
Secoundly Michale Hordern’s Macbeth at the Old Vic in a production by Douglas Seale. Many critics disliked the performance; others considered it a characterisation of depth and passion, wonderfully effective, theatrically fresh, gripping and haunting in its tragic feeling.

June 18, 1959 The stage
Plays for London & New York
A newly formed production company, FES plays with Michael Redgrave, George Hume, Fred Sadoff and B. M. Fournier as directors is to stage plays for limited runs in Britain before transferring them to America with the same casts and settings…
The second play, Michael Redgrave’s adaptation of the Henry James novel, The Aspern papers, opens in London in August under Peter Daubeny’s management with Mr Redgrave, Flora Robson and Beatrix Lehmann in the cast…

ROSSELLI, J., 1959, Jul 09. Writing and playing for the great audience. The Manchester Guardian (1901-1959), 5. Jul 9, 1959
“interesting the public in a play about a search for Lady Docker’s jewels might be relatively easy” in the opinion of Michael Redgrave. When he said so during a recent converstation in his flat in Knightsbridge, he slowly shook his head with a mildly deprecatory smile. A former Cranleigh schoolmaster still imposes a strict discipline on the actor whose knighthood was announced in last month’s birthday honours list: casual frivolity and cheap stunts are forbidden. Now Redgrave the academic theorist, Redgrave the actor what may prove to be his hardest task – the part of a middle-aged New England intellectual in Venice in 1885 trying to prove that he is more than an elegant, wealthy Harvard dilettante in The Aspern papers, the play which he has adapted from the story of Henry James.
There is no search for stolen jewellery. Sir Michael Redgrave (as we must learn to call him) is undertaking to interest the public in an obscurer but he believes a more romantic treasure. “I’m attempting to persuade people that hidden letters from an imaginer minor poet – a Byronesque solider poet – to an imaginary recluse in exile can be of consequence. I think they can. I hope I’ve succeeded.” He smiled again, at himself this time, or so it seemed.
His new play is now in rehearsal with Pauline Jameson, Beatrix Lehmann, Flora Robson and others) and is due to open in London on August 12, after trails in Newcastle and Manchester. He has been working on it intermittently since 1947, annually renewing the option an spending “quite a lot of money on it” even before the production began. The Henry James estate has been encouraging from the beginning of the enterprise, partly, no doubt, because, while adding to the story theatrical incidents (as incidents were added to accentuate the dramatic elements of Washington Square and the Turn of the Screw) Sir Michael has preserved as faithfully as possible the mood and manner of the original work, even to the extent of reproducing, or approximating, “the extraordinary convolutions” as he calls them, “Of Jamesian prose, which keeps one suspended, from comma to comma, awaiting the disclosure of key words, sometimes until the very ends of sentences.
A mere fragment from one f the more elaborate sentences in James’ preface to the story conveys an idea of the atmosphere and style that moved Mr Redgrave to write his “comedy of letters”
“There being absolutely no refinement of the mouldy rococo, in human or whatever other form, that you may not disembark at the dislocated water steps of almost any decayed monument of Venetian greatness in auspicious quest of.”
The final preposition, to some ears, may seem to ring like the tiny silver bell at the end of a line of a typewriter. To the adapter’s ears it must be a chime from a distant campanile.
The stage version of the Aspern papers was “terribly difficult to write” Sir Michael said. He showed it in an early stage to Thornton Wilder and asked for an opinion. “rewrite it” wilder said” Sir Michael recalled. “Throw it out and begin again. Use Byron, Shelley – anyone who was really in Italy. Forget this thing about Jeffrey Aspern”.

But Henry James withstood complaints that his poet was an implausible character. And Michael Redgrave is standing by Henry James. … By the end of the interview the fact and fiction of the Aspern papers were so intermingled that I had to ask a Harrods doorman to direct me to the twentieth century.

Manchester Opera House Aug 3 for a week Aspern Papers
Guardian Aug 4, 1959
Aspern Papers
The Henry James who could not write a successful play would not, I think, have been displease by the play that Sir Michael Redgrave has made from one of his best known stories… Beatrix Lehmann appears with tremendous authority as James drew her, still penetrating the lower part of the “bleached and shrivelled face” beneath the green eye shade “of a delicacy which must have once been great”. The sight of this figure with the mask like face upright in its chair was astonishing so too the glare of the eyes, the hard voice, and the electrifying passion when the small white-clad figure advances upon the seeker in the night with the cry – “you publishing scoundrel”… Flora Robson… plays with as great a sensitivity and insight as we have ever seen from her…

Guardian Aug 14, 1959
Aspern papers
Michael Redgrave’s adaptation of Henry James’s short novel “the Aspern papers” is an artistic success beyond expectation.
To say that it grips attention would be an exaggeration. The essence of the story is a fine perfume of betrayal and failure and it is not intoxicating. …
As it is Miss Lehmann makes a wonderfully sharp impression as the aged Mis Bordereau (Aspern’s Mistress of long ago) and her suspicions and ghastly surmises are the most successfully managed theatrical strokes in the play…

Aug 16, 1959 Guardian
ALAN, P.J., 1959, Aug 16. THE OLD LADY AND THE INTRUDER. The Observer (1901- 2003), 12. ISSN 00297712.
With very minor reservations, it would not be easy to over praise his adaptation. No matter if the beginning is a little slow; no matter if the only important departure from the original – a highly dramatic tirade given by Beatrix Lehmann – opens up possible vistas which are never explored; the shape of the whole, and its texture are as satisfying as anything to be seen on the London stage for a long time…
His success is largely due to the memorable performances by Beatrix Lehmann and Flora Robson, as aunt and niece. Beatrix Lehmann in particular, lets off a dramatic firework of dazzling incandescence. At each appearance, garbed as a kind of Dowager Empress in decay, eye shade on forehead and croaking her contempt for the world with batrachoid trenchancy, she fires a volley of rockets which leave the stalls huddled in expectation of a shower of spent sticks on their heads. Watch her eyes – when the shade is lifted; they glare out the horror of being bound to a wheel chair when once you had Shelley and Byron at your feet. A quick flutter of the lids abolishes sixty years, and then the fatigue and the impotent fury settle on her face, once again. This is a long way from the muted English tradition to which we have become accustomed – I cannot think of any performer who has struck quite her note since Robert Farquharson of thirty years ago – it is magnificently effective. …

Variety Aug 26 1959
Shows abroad The Aspern Papers – London Aug 13
Michael Redgrave’s adaptation of Henry James’ yarn, A comedy of letters, provides civilized theatre, though its essential literary flavour may limit its public. However, there is no better acting or direction currently available in the West End, and The aspern papers should rate a run here and eventually on Broadway…
Redgrave has written a custom built vehicle for himself, and he smoothly and plausibly reveals the dedication which the writer applies to his task of getting the Aspern letters. Beatrix Lehmann is a macabrely effective centenarian, fierce and dominating.
But it is Flora Robson who brilliantly gives the play its heart. Her slow, inevitable acceptance of Redgrave’s attentions and the pathos when she realises that she is just a means to a cynical end are quietly and moving portrayed…

The stage Sep 3 1959
Thanksgiving
After today’s matinee of the Aspern papers at the Queen’s the Chaplain of the Actors’ Church Union, the Rev John Hestier, will conduct a five minute service. A thanksgiving for the re-opening of the theatre after wartime bombing, will be offered, and it is expected that Micahel Redgrave, Flora Robson, Beatrix Lehmann and the entire cast of the Aspern Papers will attend.

Sep 10, 1959 Guardian
Anonymous1959, Sep 10. ...and this is O'Casey speaking. The Guardian (1959-2003), 6. ISSN 02613077.
(interview with O’casey to bring back into the Silver Tassie section)
Is the English style no good for your plays?
“I remember one actress. She was no damn good. So I think it was the director who said Beatrix Lehmann could do it. She didn’t look as though she could. But by God she gave a wonderful performance. You can never decide which artists what they can do. An artist can do almost anything – if he’s not a genius of course..

Nov 5 1959 The stage
The aspern papers
Arrangements are being concluded for Michael Redgrave’s adaptation of the Aspern Papers to be presented at the Theatre Antoine in Paris early in the new year. Marguerite Duras, author of Hiroshima Mon Amour, iis at present working on the translation… The Gerrman speaking rights and the rights for Italy have also been sold as well as the Dutch, Flemish, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish and Icelandic rights. No fewer than eleven offers have been made for the Broadway production but there is little likelihood that the play will be seen in Ney York until late in 1961, when Flora Robson, Beatrix Lehmann and Sir Michael are available to act their original parts. Productions in Australia and South Africa are also being negotiated.

The Stage Nov 12 1959
Star guests at GFN dinner
The annual dinner of the Gallery First Nighters’ club will be held in the banqueting suite of the Criterion Restaurant on Nov. 22…
Michael Redgrave is to respond for the drama, Flora Robson for the visitors… Other guests of honour are… BL

Nov 26, 1959 Stars meet their fans at gala dinner..
The annual dinner of the Gallery First Nighters’ club a happy affair when the stars of all branches of the theatre have a chance of knowing their keenest admirers, was held at eh Criterion Restaurant on November 22…Amongst the guests were … BL…

Jan 14, 1960 The stage
Some outstanding plays and players of 1959 by R B Marriott (has a picture of Flora Robson)
Aspern papers
This was probably the most completely successful play-with-stars of the year, Michael Redgrave, Flora Robson and Beatrix Lehmann all being outstanding!

Guardian Jan 24, 1960
Waiting for Auden by Paul Ferris (Radio)
The dark valley has been twenty years getting here from America, where it was broadcast by Columbia workshop in 1940. This is a short, bitter, beginning-of-the-war monologue of an old woman who surveys everything from her pet goose and the abandoned mining valley where she lives to God, the sunset and the compulsion that makes her strangle the creature.
She has to sound a shade archetypal; matron, matriarch, soul in torment, universal peasant. A tremendous performance by Beatrix Lehmann made it all as authentic as a Dennis Mitchell tape-recording; she sounded like seven or eight women giving each other hell, banging away at the jagged verses, not even hesitating when she saw she was in for more alliteration (“They managed much, those many miners/ but father was foremost”_) with more facts and adjectives at her disposal, she was even more impressive than Patrick Magee reading Beckett.

Feb 4, 1960
Peter Daubeny’s reward stars who gave him fine memories by Eric Johns
Playgoers by the score get turned away from the box office of the Queen’s every night, where Flora Robson, Beatrix Lehmann and Michael Redgrave provide a feast of superb acting in the aspern papers…

April 29 1960 the stage
Robert Beatty as HJ
Robert Beatty took over the Micahel Redgaves’ part of HJ in the Aspern papers at the Queen’s on Monday night. The choice is not an immediately obvious one and watching what MR Beatty makes of the part adds interest to an evening already rich with acting of a very rare quality. On Monday Mr. Beatty was a little uncertain, and one felt, lacking the brittle sensitivity that the character seemed to demand. But Mr Beatty is an intelligent player and by the end of the evening it was possible to accept his interpretation without reservation.
The enchanting gaucherie with which Flora Robson endows and creates the personality of Miss Tina, the technical brilliance of Beatrix Lehmann’s performance as the aged Miss Bordereau, and Pauline Jameson’s delicate touch as Mrs Prest, remain to combine into a production of outstanding distinction and integrity.
(aspern papers continued to run with Bea till at least July)

October 6 1960 the stage
Gordon Sandison plaque
A plaque to the memory of Gordon Sandison, general secretary of Equity, who guided the Association through the post war years until his untimely death in 1958, was unvield by Dame Sybil Thorndike in the entrance hall of Equity’s Harley Street headquarters
Dame Sybil paid tribute to Sandison’s work on behalf of the acting profession at a quiet ceremony before a limited gathering which included his widow, Mrs Clare Sandison and their four children; Sir Lewis Casson, Dame Edith Evans, and Beatrix Lehmann who were officers of equity during Gordon Sandisson’s secretaryship; …

April 13, 1961 the stage
Poems at Kenwood
Richard Ainley and Beatrix Lehmann are to read poems at Kenwood House on Sunday evening next at 6.30. the programme, arranged by Mr Ainley himself, is entitled, The Palladian poets and after. On April 23 Judi Dench and John Stride are to read a selection called people in love arranged by John Carroll.

Jun 21, 1961 Guardian
Television by Mary Crozier – One of the merits of Robert Harling’s The Paper palace, which was televised by ATV as a play of the week is that its view of fleet street is not cock-eyes, though its Press Lord with a skeleton in the cupboard does end by straining the limits of credulity. …The play is gripping and amusing for several reason. The Baron is great fun, one of those extravagant figures surrounded by plush and luxury, always terrifically well turned out and purring with power. He was layed with relish by Charles Heslop… The supreme performance however, was by Beatrix Lehmann as the strange Lady Waterman; when Miss Lehmann is on the screen my eyes are riveted by her sinister sense of timing words and her strange, heriatic [?] movements. …



Variety
Television reviews July 5 1961
Foreign tv followup play of the week
Robert Harling’s Fleet Street novel, The Paper palace was adapted by Ken Levison for this Play of the week from associated television. But it lost a lot of its metallic shine in the process. The crisp and cynical flavour of the original became diluted, and chief interest was focussed on the rather predictable plot.
When George Waterman died, journalist Guy Pascoe (Denholm Elliott) was assigned to write a feature about him. Waterman had been a friend of revolutionary causes, such as those in Ireland and Spain, but Pascoe was surprised to find himself being taken to the races by his news sheet’s proprietor, the Baron (Charles Heslop) and congratulated on his article. The Editor (Willougby Goddard) asked Pascoe for another – despite an instruction from the Baron that the subject should be dropped.
So it appeared that the Baron had something to hide – and unwittingly, Pascoe was going to find it. Waterman’s widow (Beatrix Lehmann) his secretary (Wendy Craig), they each indicated that there was something to be concealed, and a certain tension was deviously built up. Climax was that the Baron had blackmailed Waterman into selling him his small business – and that founded his newspaper empire. Now he found himself blackmailed by his own editor.
Although conviction was sadly lacking, the mechanics of the tale maintained a mild interest, with Denholm Elliott okas as the reporter and a couple of effective contributions from Beatrix Lehmann and Wendy Craig…

Aug 31 1961 The stage and television today (front cover)
Jazz musical – and Brecht.
Beatrix Lehmann is to appear as Mother Courage in the Bristol Old Vic’s presentation of Brecht’s play, which opens on Monday 7.

: Nov 9, 1961 Guardian
Television drama by Mary Crozier
ATV postponed political play the Candidate “The selection committee was horribly funny and Beatrix Lehmann was powerfully moving and pathetic as the admirals widow, much opposed to modern art and generally the worse for drink. Miss Lehmann electrifies the television screen whenever she appears. …

Feb 11, 1962 Guardian
A shivering of timbers by Kenneth Tynan,
In 1946 the Lord Chamberlain banned Satre’s Huis Clos on sight, conceivably because it postulated a hell without physical torture, but more probably because on of its characters was a lesbian on whom no retribution was visited beyond perpetual damnation Since then his lordship has softened; damnation is now considered an adequate penalty of Lesbianism; and Frank Huaser is thus able to present Stuart Gilbert’s adaptation of the play In camera for public consumption…
This constricted chamber drama demands a nearly perfect performance if it is to work at all. Constance Cummings gives us a fair resemblance of the Lesbian’s curling lip and defiantly masculine stance; but in Jill Bennett’s Estelle and David Knight’s Garcin a farouche refuge from Viva Zapata forever snarling and quivering – one sees only the kind of overplaying that is born of insecurity. Yearningly, I recall Peter Brook’s production at the Arts Theatre Club in 1946; Alec Guinness's Garcin, for example, a silky fraud whose aplomb was complete except for a sporadic facial tic, and his brilliant accomplices, Beatrix Lehmann and the late Betty Ann Davies.
With the minimum of movement, Mr Brook created the maximum of tension with Mr Hauser the reverse is true.

Feb 14 1962 Vareity
Shows on broadway the aspern papers
Cast is totally different. This Micahel Redgrave adaptation was a moderate hit in London, with an 11 month run, but it’s a still life in the hurly burly of Broardway. Fracncoise Rosay, making her second appearance on the US stage (Her first was in last season’s one performance flop, one there was a Russian) gives a vivid and subtle performance of an ancient lady who lives in her memories but would be willing to trade her trove of love letters for her nieces’ happiness. The part was played in London by Beatrix Lehmann.

Feb 15, 1962 Stage
Ghost Sonata
Pic of ann bell and mention of bea

Mar 11, 1962 Guardian
Doctor’s downfall by Maurice Richards – photo of Bea in the ghost sonata but reproduction is terrible – might want to check the original.

Mar 18, 1962 Guardian
Television by Maurice Richardson the skeleton in the box.
I wonder whether Strindberg would have taken to television.. The ghost sonata is one of his dream plays, but he put a lot of his theatrical naturalism into it, which is probably why it acts so vividly…
The cast was strong and sound… Beatrix Lehmann as the mummy woman who lives in the cupboard and talks like a parrot managed to steer well clear of absurdity. …
Nov 28 1962 Variety foreign television review WAS a TV adaptation of Aspern Papers with Bea! (shown 18 November 1962) BBC Sunday night play
A faithful and astute adaptation… Commissioned in a new version by John O’Toole, was a wise decision, even though Micahel Redgrave’s recent and successful legit version was presumably available. O’Toole was able to re-conceive the tale in tv terms, and the development was able to rove outside the confines of the single venetian house, in which the main action took place. … He also drew imposing performances from Beatrix Lehmann, who commanded the screen as the suspicious, grasping and world weary old lady, clutching to secretes that she thought were private, …

Mar 19, 1962 Guardian
Television the irish and the arts by Gerard Fay
The ghost sonata by Mary Crozier –
As the first slow and careful setting of the first part of Strindberg’s the ghost sonta unfolded in the bBC’s production on Friday one could feel how today the psychological drama would plunge straight in and start us on guesses without the introduction. …
The ghost sonata is a strangely powerful play, though it does not spring to full life till the second half. The BBC’s production by Stuart Burge was visually most striking in this first part, where the old man (Robert Helpmann) in his wheelchair is showing the inhabitants of the mansion to the student (Jeremy Brett). This was a triumph of design, for which Clifford Hatts was responsible… The lighting also with it sharp contrasts was as effective as in cinema. In the house, as the weird party came together – the colonel, the “mummy” in the cupboard, terrifying but not incredible, arrestingly played by Beatrix Lehmann; the commanding major-domo, the threatening cook – the emphasis shifted to the playing…

The Stage Mar 22, 1962
Birthday party - When Critics slaughter
Sir I cannot tell what motivated the letter in defence of dramatic critics which you published last week, but certainly the defence itself is too ridiculous, to be allowed to pass uncontradicted.
In 1958 Harold Pinter’s play The birthday party, was presented with a cast including Beatrix Lehmann, John Slater and Richard Pearson (directed by Peter wood) and was mercilessly slaughtered by the critics and ngored by the public. It is now universally accepted that tis is a play of great interest and merit, and some of the critics who took the greatest pains to dismiss it contemptuously on its first presentation, have since publicly recanted, in a bleated endeavour to get back into line with general trend.

May 10 1962 Stage
Bristol Old Vic
Richard Ainley, prinicipal of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, has initiated lunch hour poetry readings. The first from Auden and D H Lawrence took place in the Bristol university Drama studio last week, and a further one on The Sitwells will be given on May 29 and 30. Beatrix Lehmann will be giving readings from the romantic poets. Mr Ainley hopes to play host to two theatre personalities each term…

Jun 17, 1962
Guardian Experiments in listening
Another play, as it happened, Nathan and Tabileth, by Barry Bermange, offered a particularly interesting comparison. (Bermange (whose name is new to me) seems –dramatically speaking – a sort of nephew both to Pinter and Ionesco. But it doesn’t matter. One still has to write about something. Mr Bermange did, and with an individual sensibility – about the imaginative frontiers of old age, a winter afternoon : a couple wavering on the distant edge of life, memory closing up behind each move. The use of suspended time and of audible thought made this play (designed for sound) a startlingly effective whole.
There were rich parts for the three actors and they took them superbly; Beatrix Lehmann in particular.

Variety June 20 1962
Foreign television review
The chairs with Beatrix Lehmann, Cryill Cussack, Barry Letts.
Producer Naomi Capon, Writer Eugene Ionesco
Described by the author as a tragic farce, Ionesco’s the chairs had a limited run at London’s Royal Court Theatre four years ago, in the same able translation by Donald Watson. This bold attempt to translate the fantasy into tv terms came largely a cropper, and wouldn’t win many new followers for the scribe’s unusual vision.
It concerned an aged couple, preparing for death, and the man’s insistence that he had a valuable lesson to transmit before going under. The scene was gradually people with chairs and an imaginary audience, and finally the orator appeared to pass n the old man’s accumulated wisdom, but he was dumb. Ionesco was thus preaching a pretty simple fable about the meaningless of life. In theatrical terms, it came off because it used the stage superbly. The sense of a mounting number of eager, but unseen, spectators gave the piece an increasing farcical momentum.
Naomi Capon’s production lost most of this – and fell short on humour. What was left was glum and wasn’t helped by performances from Beatrix Lehmann and Cryil Cusack that were far too tricky. The old people must convince in their foolishness, and they didn’t. …

Oct 14, 1962 Guardian
Play, Pillars of society by ibsen with Paul rogers and Beatrix Lehmann

Nov 8 1962 Purdom to star in James’ play
Edumond Purdon Siobhan McKenna and Beatrix Lehmann the cast of The aspern papers by Henry James on BBC tv on Nov 18
Rudolph Cartier, who produces the aspern papers, has chosen Beatrix Lehmann for Julianna, the centenarian with a mysterious and passionate past…

Nov 19, 1962 guardian
JOHN O'CALLAGHAM, 1962, Nov 19. review. The Guardian (1959-2003), 7. ISSN 02613077.
Aspern papers
The aspern papers, produced by the BBC last night in a version by John O’Toole from Henry James’s story fell short of expectations. There was something faintly but consistently disappointing about it, a kind of bluntness where there should have been fine delineation. Certainly it was not as good a version as the stage play of some years ago, although Beatrix Lehmann again brilliantly played the part of the aged Juliana Bordeaerau.

Nov 22, 1962 The stage and television today
The aspern papers
This adaptation by John O’Toole of Henry James Novel was a big success. Rudolph Cartier, the producer, was indeed fortunate in the selection of his cast. Beatrix Lehmann as old Juliana Bordereau, Siobhan McKenna as her niece Tina and Edmund Purdonn as the young author, Harvey Morrison all turned in fine performances. Fantasy, frustration and suspense, combined to make an excellent hour and ten minutes entertainment…. This was one television play which could stand being repeated.

Nov 25, 1962 observer
The aspern papers got the full treatment for the BBC from Rudolf Cartier. What with huge palazzo, garden and gondolas, it was as imposing as a feature film. And being restricted to an hour it couldn’t drag. As Miss Juliana Bordereau, the dead poet’s former mistress and custodian of the papers, Beatrix Lehmann gave a terrify performance. She looked older than the ancient of days, yet cunning as the Sybil. Her bargaining and her death, stick uplifted, croaking “you publishing scoundrel” were superb.
I was a bit doubtful about some aspects of the adaptation though. It seemed to over0romanticise things, especially the so difficult relationship between the young biographer and the niece…

Nov 28 1962 Variety
Foreign tv follow up
He also drew imposing performances from Beatrix Lehmann, who commanded the screen as the suspicious, grasping and world-weary old lady, clutching to secrets that she thought were private…