The First 40 Years: 1956

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.

1956: Wuthering Heights

by Simon Murgatroyd

Having navigated the pitfalls of its inaugural season, Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre was successful enough to launch a second season in Scarborough during the summer of 1956.

This built upon the previous year with five world premiere productions from a season of six plays. Like the previous season, there was a strong showing of female writers with two of the plays written by women.

One of these writers was Jurneman Winch, a pseudonym for the writer Joan Winch. Joan had written Turn Right At The Crossroads for the first season and for 1956, she attempted the challenge of adapting Wuthering Heights for the stage.

Joan is the only female writer at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre to employ a male pseudonym and to this day, it’s not entirely clear why. Whilst it was still fairly common for writers to do this during the 1950s because of prejudice against female writing, Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre was proud of its promotion of new writers, whatever their sex.

Although Wuthering Heights marked the last of Joan’s plays for Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, it was judged a great success and was a box office hit. This can also be seen when in 1960, Stephen Joseph decided to revive two notable plays from the theatre’s first five years with Wuthering Heights and Ruth Dixon’s ‘Prentice Pillar; the former of which starred Alan Ayckbourn as Heathcliff.

Of the original production, The Stage particularly praised Joan’s writing - although the writer assumed Jurneman is a man - noting the play “is shot through with his striking dialogue” and “here is, one feels, a playwright of decided promise.”

It was also the first play to have publicity shots taken outside of the rehearsal room or Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre itself. A photo-shoot was arranged on the moors with the director, Stephen Joseph, and the play’s Heathcliff and Cathy; John Rees & Shirley Jacobs.

A notable shot of Stephen ‘directing’ the actors on the moors was published in the Yorkshire Evening Post alongside the unlikely note: “To get the atmosphere for their presentation of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, the cast has been holding rehearsals on the moors near Scarborough.”

It seems more likely ‘publicity stunt’ rather than ‘rehearsals’ would be closer to the truth! The other photos feature the actors on the moors and were probably used for publicity images for the foyer in Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre during the summer season.

Wuthering Heights not only played in Scarborough but also toured to London for a single performance with the Sunday Theatre Club. During the first three years of Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre’s existence, Stephen Joseph was still hoping to find a home for the company in London and regularly took productions which had been presented in Scarborough alongside other work to London in the hope of generating interest in his project.The performances took place at the Mahatma Gandhi Assembly Rooms in Fitzroy Square and this is where Alan Ayckbourn first saw the Studio Theatre Company and experienced theatre-in-the-round for the first time.

Joan’s 1955 play, Turn Right At The Crossroads, was the first of the Studio Theatre Club plays when they were launched on 1 September 1955.

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