The First 40 Years: 1955

This is part of a series of articles looking at the first 40 years of the Stephen Joseph Theatre (1955 to 1995) from the perspective of the theatre's Archive. The articles were first published in the SJT Circular newsletter.

1955: Circle of Love

by Simon Murgatroyd

On 14 July 1955, Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre opened on the first floor of Scarborough’s public library. Founded by Stephen Joseph, it was the UK’s first professional theatre-in-the-round company.

The opening play was Circle Of Love by Eleanor D Glaser and - like the other three plays in the debut season - it was a world premiere.

Stephen had met Eleanor through his playwriting classes at the Central School of Drama in London and commissioned her to write a play for the first season.

The only known extant original manuscript is held by the University of Warwickshire, which kindly donated a copy to the Stephen Joseph Theatre to mark the company’s 50th anniversary in 2005.

But it is another related donation which is in the spotlight this month with a postcard given to the Stephen Joseph Theatre by Nick Thomas, chairman of the Scarborough-based company Qdos Entertainment.

The postcard is the earliest surviving piece of production-specific advertising relating to the Library Theatre and features a rehearsal photograph of the cast of Circle Of Love with ’Theatre in the Round, Library Theatre, Scarborough’ at the foot of the image.

On its rear, it becomes obvious this was a promotional postcard for Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre - presumably either given away around town or sold at the venue.

What is special about this postcard is it was written by a member of the company, Kara Aldridge, on 5 August 1955 - three weeks after the start of the first Library Theatre season. The pertinent part of the short missive reads: ‘We are doing better, will stay the course. I am adoring it. Thank you for all your kindness to Ralph and Katie and your nice letter.’ Although we can only take educated guesses about the content of the letter, the suggestion ‘We are doing better’ in all probability makes reference to the very hesitant start to the Library Theatre’s life. The summer of 1955 began with a record-breaking heatwave which meant audiences initially fell far short of the 100 people per performance Stephen Joseph had calculated was needed to break even.

The dry spell broke on 2 August when the first major rainfall of the summer led to Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre’s first full-house; the venue held 248 people in the Concert Room space. From which point, audiences picked up and - having threatened to close the theatre - Stephen Joseph confirmed the company was safe for the rest of the season, which the postcard alludes to.

The Ralph referred to is probably Ralph Nossek, who was also a member of the inaugural company. It’s also interesting to note Kara’s love of the Library Theatre experience as it should be remembered that none of the company had had any experience of theatre-in-the-round before joining; theatre-in-the-round was, to all intents and purposes, an unknown quantity in the UK prior to 1955.

Very few original items survive in the Archive relating to Circle Of Love, aside from an original programme - which from the spring will be on display in the archive for participants on tours of the building - alongside several production photographs.

This makes this postcard extremely valuable to the collection, offering as it does both an image of the first production, an early look at promotional material and a direct connection to a member of the original company.

Article by and copyright of Simon Murgatroyd. Please do not reproduce this article without permission of the copyright holder.