Significant Events: The First Christmas
This article was published in the Christmas 2020 edition of the SJT Circular.The First Christmas
by Simon MurgatroydChristmas is already in full swing at the SJT - as you probably know if you’ve been to see The Snow Queen. It’s the latest in a string of mad seasonal plays by Nick Lane which have become an annual treat at the SJT.
But what was the first Christmas play to be staged by the company and was it anything like what we expect today?
Let’s travel back to Christmas Past and find out...
Stephen Joseph founded Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre in 1955, but it wasn’t until 1957 that he began scheduling winter seasons.
Celebrating Christmas was either something Stephen wasn’t terribly interested in or he just had a terrible idea of what constituted a Christmas play. How else to explain John Osbourne’s Look Back In Anger the week before Christmas 1957 or Sartre’s Huis Clos for Christmas week 1959? There’s nothing like an existentialist drama to bring home the message of Christmas.
The first proper attempt at what might recognisably be called a Christmas play came in 1960 and was, as far as anyone remembers, an unmitigated disaster.
It was also, much to my shame as his Archivist, a new play by Alan Ayckbourn.
In 1960, Stephen had the bright idea it might be worth staging a children’s play for Christmas; having obviously exhausted angst, philosophy and obscure Russian comedies about housing shortages during previous seasons. *
Alan took on the responsibility of writing the play unaware that Stephen Joseph had failed to impart a quite vital piece of information.
“Stephen just said: ‘Um... will you be putting any ballet into your play?’ And I said ‘WHAT!’ and he said: ‘Ballet.’ Well I pointed out that I didn’t write ballet but Stephen just said I should.”
Unknown to Alan, Stephen had signed a deal with Manchester-based British Dance Drama Theatre, who had performed at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre during the summer, to collaborate on a Christmas play.
Unperturbed by the lack of what could be termed quite important details - and despite his surprising lack of experience in all things balletic - Alan set about the writing the play with a cunning plan in mind.
“What I had to do was write the play overall, then write separately the story that the ballets should take.”
Essentially, the ballets are totally superfluous to the plot of Dad's Tale which follows young Martin and his destitute family who have all their worldly possessions repossessed and are faced with a Christmas dinner of beef dripping.
Highlights include an entire scene dedicated to drawing the dole, hilarity with bailiffs taking a family’s possessions, the father turning into a budgerigar and, of course, ballets representing he dreams of the family. It is, what might be termed, a mixed bag.
There was another issue to contend with too. The budget made no allowance for the companies to rehearse together...
“It had an extraordinary brief. It was written for two companies, us and the British Dance Drama Theatre, who weren't going to meet until very late on in rehearsals. Clifford Williams was directing our company; Gerard Bagley was directing the dance company.”
So the Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre company rehearsed the drama scenes in Scarborough and British Dance Drama Theatre rehearsed the ballets in Manchester, before the companies collided and merged just in time for performance.
“We fused them together when the two companies got together in Scarborough for dress rehearsals. Once or twice the actors got involved in the ballets, but they were always pushed around or shoved into places.”
One of which actors was Alan himself. For at this point in his career, he was still firmly intending to pursue a career as a professional actor and wrote plays to highlight his acting skills. In this case, it may not have been entirely successful.
“This was the last time I played multiple roles. I spent the evening rushing on and off, changing moustaches. During one performance a woman exclaimed: ‘Oh no! Not him again.’”
Additional to this, the scheduling did not fall in the production’s favour, largely due to the company’s inexperience of handling Christmas plays. The dates precluded the financial benefits of school performances or, actually, even the presence of children...
“It was not a success (a) because I think we were into a winter season in Scarborough, which never established itself; and (b) because it was a children's play, but we were actually doing it at a time when there weren't any children around! Instead of doing it in school time, when you could con a few of them in there, we were doing it just before Christmas.”
Despite all this - and against the odds - perhaps the play was actually a success though? Sadly, barely anyone was there to decide and Alan took it all quite badly.
“It opened just before Christmas and, including the director, played to an audience of five with an average age of forty. It was my first taste of theatrical failure. I was very depressed and gave up writing for several months.”
Of course, Alan’s early plays were written under the pseudonym of Roland Allen, so Alan might have hoped he would not be associated with the play. No such luck. Stephen revealed Roland was Alan within the programme!
As for Dad’s Tale, it toured briefly to Newcastle-under-Lyme’s Municipal Hall and was never seen again. Alan withdrew it, never allowed it to be published and for many years said he had deliberated destroyed every copy of it; he didn’t - but it’s a good story!
The final word goes to Stephen Joseph without whom this extraordinary tale would never have come about. That, at the end, he felt the play was problematic can arguably seen in his programme note, which with hindsight seems quite defensive.
“This is something quite unique. You may like it; you may not. But you cannot see it anywhere else except here. No pundit from London is going to tell you whether it is good or bad; no critics are going to fill the national papers with important comments on it. This is a play written for you, as well as for us. It will succeed or fail, depending on your opinion and whether audiences come to see it or not.”
In retrospect, Alan himself would agree that whilst these aims were notable, they perhaps deserved a stronger play than Dad’s Tale to carry them through!
It’s probably fair to say that whilst Christmas plays do not get off to the strongest of starts at the SJT, they did eventually develop into something rather special.
Although who fancies a bit of an existentialist drama next Christmas just for a change? *
* That one is Valantin Kataev’s Squaring The Circle from New Year week 1958...
Article by and copyright of Simon Murgatroyd. Please do not reproduce this article without permission of the copyright holder.