The First 40 Years: 1962

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.

1962: Recurring Roles

by Simon Murgatroyd

In the history of the Stephen Joseph Theatre, there are very few examples of actors who have played the same role twice in entirely different productions.

Whilst it is obviously not uncommon for actors to reprise their roles for revivals of the same production within a few months (as currently happens with the tours of Alan Ayckbourn’s plays from the previous year). A reprisal of a role in productions separated by years is far less common.

The first person to do this was the late actor Stanley Page, who died in March of this year, having been a staple of the Scarborough company during the 1960s and 1970s.

In 1962, Stanley had the distinction of appearing in the first production of a Harold Pinter play to be staged by the company in Scarborough with The Caretaker. Those readers with good memories may recall Pinter himself actually directed the Scarborough company in the second ever production of The Birthday Party in 1959, but that only toured and was never seen at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre.

In 1962, Alan Ayckbourn directed The Caretaker with Stanley Page playing the elderly Davies. Sadly no reviews survive in archive to give an indication of how the production was received.

However, Alan Ayckbourn returned to the play in 1976 just after the company had moved to its new home at the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round and, fourteen years on, Stanley reprised the role of Davies opposite Robin Herford and Bob Eaton.

Reviews for this do survive with the Northern Echo noting Stanley was “little short of magnificent” and the production “brilliantly presented”, whilst the Scarborough Evening News described Stanley’s performance as “uproariously funny” and the direction as ‘“unobscurely funny” - whatever that means!

Stanley joined the company in 1960, having moved to the UK from Australia, and would go on to appear in the world premieres of Alan Ayckbourn The Norman Conquests, Confusions, Bedroom Farce and Sisterly Feelings amongst many other productions at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre and the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round.

The only other actors who have reprised the same roles in Scarborough are Malcolm Hebden, who played Neil in Just Between Ourselves (1976 & 1996, and who noted that he was too young for the role originally and too old for the play later!) Antonia Pemberton played Great Aunt Repetitious in This Is Where We Came In (1991 and 2001), Susie Blake was in Snake In The Grass (2002 & 2008) as Miriam and Ian Hogg played Joe and Adrian McLoughlin played Ken in both the 1994 and 2008 productions of Haunting Julia; all plays written by Alan Ayckbourn.

There is also one other actor who played the same role twice in different productions with the Scarborough company, although the vast majority of theatre-goers would never know it - nor perhaps they had even seen her.

That actress was Lesley Meade, wife of Robin Herford, who sadly died in May and was a prominent member of the company throughout the 1980s.

Lesley appeared in a a number of world premieres including Alan Ayckbourn’s A Chorus Of Disapproval, Stephen Mallatratt’s Touch Wood & Whistle and the ambitious adaptation of Christopher Fry’s television series The Brontës Of Haworth. She also appeared in the final production at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round with Alan Ayckbourn’s Just Between Ourselves.

But there’s one role that had a great effect own theatre-goers and certainly on this author - notably giving me nightmares for several months.

Lesley Meade appeared in the world premiere of Stephen Mallatratt’s adaptation of Susan Hill’s The Woman In Black in 1987. She’s not credited as an actor, but within the designers, she is listed next to ‘Vision’.

A clever way to hide the fact she played the Woman In Black, the spectre who scared a good number of theatre-goers that year.

In 1997, when the Stephen Joseph Theatre marked the 10th anniversary of the play - which had subsequently gone onto extraordinary success across the world - Lesley once again assumed the ghostly visage as the eponymous woman of the title, scaring another generation of theatre-goers and further traumatising those of us who had only just recovered from the experience of the original production!

The Circle would like to pay tribute to both Stanley Page and Lesley Meade and their lasting contributions to the Stephen Joseph Theatre.

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