July 6 1950 The stage
Pericles
On July 2 the Under Thirty Theatre Group presented at Rudolph Steiner Hall, the play by Shakespeare, …
Beatrix Lehmann, bawd
For all that playgoers should be profoundly grateful to the Under Thirties Theatre Group for giving them an opportunity to see this unfamiliar work with Paul Scofield in the leading part. It is the most noteworthy production in the annals of this group of enterprising youngsters and it good to hear that the performance is to be repeated Sunday next. … Beatrix Lehmann’s scarlet coiffured bawd is a colourful study in low-life.
J, C.T., 1950, Jul 09. Telling The Tale. The Observer (1901- 2003), 6. ISSN 00297712.
Pericles
Much in the production stay in the mind, Beatrix Lehmann’s flinty Bawd in the establishment …
The Stage Nov 30 1950
The fortune, School Drama matinees
Reginald Berkeley’s The lady of the lamp, was the play selected for presentation under the auspices of the LCC for London Secondary School children this season, and it proved an excellent choice. Six performances were given at the Fortune theatre starting November 16 and ending November 23 and admission was free to organised school parties. As far as could be judged by a single attendance, the age groups ranged from about 12 to 15 and the audience reaction was excellent. Beatrix Lehmann was excellently cast as Florence Nightingale, bringing to the part an upright integrity and well controlled intensity of feelings.
1951
OUR, R.C., 1951, Feb 05. BRITAIN AND THE FUTURE. The Manchester Guardian (1901-1959), 3.
A man of god, by Gabriel Marcel on the third programme with BL in the leading woman’s part…
March 8, 1951
The Embassy Thunder Rock
On March 6 Molly May, Ltd presented a revival of the play by Robert Ardrey, entitled, Thunder rock
Miss Kirby, Beatrix Lehmann
How difficult it is to recall the mood of 1939! Then it seemed to the generation involved that civilisation was about to meet its final test, to stand or to fall for 1000 years. There is something to be said, perhaps, for reviving at the present time Mr. Ardrey’s dramatic story of the disillusioned American newspaper man who immures himself on a lonely but ghost peopled lighthouse to get away from it all, and yet finds himself embroiled in the similar turmoils of another day and age. If the accuracy of the author’s vision needs endorsement, it is only necessary to glance at the morning paper. By now, what seemed a crisis then has become a chronic state, but civilisation goes on just the same.
A distinguished company has been gathered in Clifford Evan’s production, and the play is presented with a sense of the dramatic that is arresting if somewhat larger than life. IT takes a little time to make the adjustment to the theatricality of the characters and the situation, and for this reason the opening moments of the first act are not altogether comfortable and seem a little disconnected. But there are some fine characterisations among the spirits that spring from the mind… There is a disturbingly sharp-edged portrait of frustrated womanhood from Beatrix Lehmann as Miss Kirby…
May 31, 1951 The stage
Ghosts
For the first time in his acting career, Douglass Montgomery will not play either an American or a Canadian when he appears as Oswald in Ghosts, at the Embassy on June 12. With him will be Beatrix Lehmann…
June 14, 1951 The stage
Ghosts Front page
If Clement Scott saw it now! Douglass Montgomery on Ghosts (photo of Montgomery but no bea)
Strange that Douglass Montgomery had never played in Ibsen until he opened last Tuesday in the Robert Mitchell production of Ghosts. In which he is Oswald at the embassy. He has, in a sense, been in touch with the play from his earliest years, some of his most vivid recollections being of notable and other revivals…
(Discusses other women he has seen play Mrs Alving, starting with his own mother in amateur dramatics and his father as Oswald)
“Mr Montgomery is particularly pleased to have the opportunity to playing Oswald with Beatrix Lehmann as Mrs Alving. “This fine actress,” He said, “Has, of course, played the part with great success several times before. She has played both the Archer and the Norman Ginsbury translations or versions. I find it a stimulating challenge and privilege even to try to hack my way into the forest where she is already so secure and so serene. Her friendliness, patience and help with my efforts represent a kind of intellectual and co-operative kindness which I shall never forget.”
Speaking of Miss Lehmann’s work, Mr Montgomery said he would presume to describe her primarily as an intellectual actress, “Very few players in my experience,” he explained, “have what I would call authentic intellects, …I understand we had one in North America, Clare Eames, at the Theatre guild in New York where I received my first juvenile training. In my opinion Beatrix Lehmann is really able to think in dramatic terms. She really understands Ibsen – all of his work. This results in a performance of unusual calibre and character. For better or for worse I am not an intellectual actor. I feel things instinctively, working on the trial and error method. Miss Lehmann’s understanding and patience are an example of the way work in the theatre ought to be helped and so seldom is….
Unfortunately audiences, especially the critics approach new productions of great plays with old, preconceived ideas. In this production of ghosts working with Robert Mitchell and Miss Lehmann, I have tried, as it were, to approach my part from scratch and start afresh.
The stage June 14 1951
The embassy Ghosts
Excellent though this performance of Ibsen’s sombre play is, the stage is nevertheless peopled with more ghosts than those that haunt Mrs Alving’s tormented imagination alone. All these people, the pastor, the mother, the son and his half sister are ghosts, and between us and them is suspended a gauze curtain of time that robs them and the motives that activate them of all reality. They are of a different world, encumbered by a different scale of values, and not all the skill and persuasion of this very distinguished company can make them anything else, until that final, dreadful scene of revelation, the masterpiece of restraint, that suddenly brings home the quality of Ibsen’s genius in the theatre. Here the stature of Beatrix Lehmann’s restless performance as Mrs Alving is revealed in all its strength and so is the purpose of Douglass Montgomery’s quiet, forlorn portrayal of Oswald…
Anonymous1951, Jun 17. Up and Down. The Observer (1901- 2003), 6. ISSN 00297712
It is a strange production of ghosts when one comes from it thinking first about the pastor and Regina Midway through the evening at the Embassy, Frederick Valk (in a great huff and puff as Manders) and Siobhan McKenna (a direct and clear Regina) filled the mind. In the third act Beatrix Lehmann urged her small scale Mrs Alving to a final scene that was fully charged. Even if a too-healthy Oswald (Douglass Montgomery) found it hard to present a mind diseased, the last moments had a power that would have much astonished Isben’s foe Clement Scott. This may not be a major revival; it is, indeed, an up and down affair, but with we are on the top the prospect is – as always – magnificently worth the journey.
(Production toured check big file for locations)
G, P., 1951, Jul 03. "GHOSTS". The Manchester Guardian (1901-1959), 5.
Ghosts Manchester opera house
This does, however, throw up the delicacy of Beatrix Lehmann’s Mrs Alving: the range of Beatrix Lehmann’s remarkable voice, from real sweetness to a masculine depth, is always a fascination, and last night her face and eyes seemed a faithful mirror of the unhappy mother who had to pay so dearly for her entire adherence to the pastor’s creed of law and order. In the first act, really the most sensitive and evocative of the whole play, her treatment of the part was very distinguished. In the last act she had to let the horrors rip but without getting much more in the way of a deepened return.
July 5 1951 in the provinces the stage
Manchester – opera house ghosts Glasgow Unity Theatre Society sponsors a revivial… Beatrix Lehmann gives a distinguished performance…
October 11 1951
The days mischiefAlec L rea and E P Clift who presented Lesley Storm’s Black Chiffon have acquired the rights to her newest play. The day’s mischief which deals in dramatic form with an adolescent schoolgirl’s crush on her Latin master. A distinguished cast headed by Ian Hunter, Catherine Lacey, Walter Fitzgerald, Beatrix Lehmann and Muriel Pavlow will open a short tour at the Grand, Blackpool on October 22, the play, which is to be produced by Norman Marshall will be seen in London in mid-November.
Variety Oct 24 1951
The day’s mischief Play is set for Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Nov. 5
The Stage Dec 6 1951
The day’s mischief Brighton
Which comes before West End Production (so delayed from previous start time).
PHILLLIP HOPE-WALLACE, 1951, Dec 12. "THE DAY'S MISCHIEF". The Manchester Guardian (1901-1959), 5.
The Day’s Mischief Miss Storm’s people are more than plausible stage puppets ; their behaviour is interesting because true, and true more interesting, very often, than merely affecting. One may watch dry-eyed this tale of a small town scandal precipitated by a school girl’s disappearance. But one watches with belief, which is sometimes, though seldom, more valuable in the theatre than sympathy.
A schoolmaster is embarrassed and his wife is annoyed by the adolescent admiration of a young pupil. The wife feels that a sharp word is due to the girl, who then mysteriously disappears. Rape, suicide, and even murder are hinted at. The school master and his wife are irreparably damaged before the white-faced truant returns, and the girl’s parents too, though the painful episode is the occasion for them to part company with the girl’s aunt and overloaded psychopath whose particular form of interference is the immediate cause of the catastrophe.
Beatrix Lehmann puts a cutting edge on the portrait of this blissfully evil woman, but it is Catherine Lacey, as the wife, victim of a larger cruelty, who gives the play its real tension – a fine performance. She is splendidly supported by Walter Fitzgerald as the girl’s father…
Variety Dec 19 1951
‘Mischeif’ looms as hit in London but “indian” not given much chance
The day’s mischief Duke of York
It is an absorbing play of a girl’s infatuation for her married tutor and its tragic repercussions. It differs from her previous success, Black Chiffon, in that all characters are of equal importance with Ian… BL,,, all superb in their roles.
Norman Marshall directs, and show runs effortlessly after provincial tryout. Warm reception from audience and press indicate every likelihood of success.
Variety Dec 19 1951
Plays abroad
This domestic drama has much of the quality of the authoress’ previous success, Black Chiffon. … Interest mounts in a sequence of natural, not over melodramatic, events that have a ring of truth and poignancy. Play was warmly received and looks like another winner for Lesley Storm, and might make a bid for Broadway approbation….
Muriel Pavlow gives a sensitive, moving performance as the young girl involved in her first love encounter and Walter Fitzgeral is forthright and understanding as her father. Catherine Lacey as the sexually possessive wife, arouses a certain sympathy in spite of her unpleasant role. She is aptly cast. Ian Hunter, as her maligned husband, dignified and repentant for his culpability, it thoroughly at home in the character. Beatrix Lehmann conveys to a nicety the twisted mind of the aunt who seeks ghostly solace for her own unhappy love affair…
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