Oh What a Lovely War: A Tribute to Joan Littlewood

Theatre Workshop started several years before the war the people involved were working in the entertainment industry mostly in Manchester they wanted to create a theater which had its roots in the ordinary people like the English theatre had in Shakespeare's day until the war we produce plays and taught them up and down the Lancashire and Yorkshire valleys and then the war came of course and everything had to stop whilst we run the forces in 1945 fire rustled immobilized we had we had our gratuities we pulled them and brought lighting equipment and curtains we started a tour which lasted eight and a half years and in all that time we were never more than five weeks in any one place and it was quite clear to us that we had to find a permanent base a permanent theater of our own if our work was going to develop and then one day we had a telegram from a theatrical agent who said that if we had six weeks rent to pay in advance we could have the Theatre Royal Stratford London that room was a particularly rotten place I was always sorry we ever went in order to do what you wish you have to be ruthless I'd sacrifice my grandmother wouldn't die for the sake of the work I did you can't expect everyone to be as selfish as iron I was a economy bastard never knew my father my mother was quite pretty a constant but you're pretty she got caught in and blacked out or something she changed my whole life he has the cheek to call me boring actress now she was I'm afraid a bit of a gangster's moll you know originally they all look like Barbara had blonde and little did some lovely bird it's my saying you know I didn't like the way she worked silly it's a pity wasting Barbara but I'd give anything to work with her again there she's you Amelia me she'd destroy them what do you think about that banner but the secret was she was right I thought I'd be up all night you know kicking richard around but he was gorging whatever it was he did Jesus she was a genius she was a master she made your imagination work Theatre Royal Stratford East but I was with her for six years it was she was my University and she always called her actors and actresses birds eggs because she said we are highly decorative and fragile and we were rehearsed in an area of pink light Christian I want my birds eggs to feel good to look lovely and there we were in this in this pink light and it was amazing this created between the centre of this light never get a PhD under theatre after two years with her she was so extraordinary what she wanted you to really think and believe in and imagine circumstances that your character might be in we use Stanislavski as a sort of bible in those early days so whether she flirted with lara and she flirted with Stanislavski she never became their slave she never she never had one at anybody at any time said this is the only way to do it it's let's flirt with this for a couple of months and see where you know it's wonderful she was never sort of rigid about anything first thing I would do would be get people's feet to work because you know you can I used to be under the stage clearing up and I think that bastard and you could hear by his feet they were diffident they were oh it was shuffling on but everything is in your feet you know that now you know what you did she okay take off all your clothes as it took off your clothes I took off my shoes and the socks no - got her shirt off your shirt do you my prepense took off my pants she took off your underwear what take off your underwear what she'd take it off there's no one here but me I took off my underwear I was balls naked and she's just stand there and I want you to make me believe that you're fully dressed and then explained your clothes sent it but that's what doctors do she said to do that expose themselves on - you are willing to expose yourself and to quote her vomit up your secrets onstage you'll never be any good I always say two vectors we go to the streets and the parks and the cafes and the pubs and watch people and don't let's have art for art that art from life I don't think you're looking for any more special when you say what what type of act here are you for I don't believe in types I believe that better the theatre gets the more individual ejector batons that the theatre shall help him to become again a real artist and not the tool of a producer or or or the kind of cast away the regular muffin oaf of society so Arts Council the trade unions the Labour Party or no millionaires or anybody else they won't give us money so we have to pawn what we do the Western where they have made some money and what happens we make I made about 16 thousand quid how's the West End last year and spend it in Stratford every penny cuz it takes quite a lot of money to run it you see it should be of necessary to any Danny government as a librarian as good food should be to people and all that don't I feel that but what's the alternative I mean do you think that it would be better if princeless the government supports this thing like respect would you like that we're not stop hurting their nose never did you see there's the trouble I mean can you get financials port for anything without news poking if so I'd like know what it is I love Shambu when lovely war was going am I right in thinking at one point because I watched it you got the whole number together of Alexander's ragtime band cut the next day did you first meet said I haven't long left rather she said right well what you gonna do for me I said well I have players hold Hamlet and I know so I did this like tour you know - I was shouting and screaming and I thinking all that was good and got that out of my system and then she stopped and there was silence and then a little delay though she came on the stage and the first time I'd seen her obviously this rather short dumpy ish woman with a knitted cap and she said yes Brian she said how old are you and I said I was 22 and she's know very young about you you you need to get a lot of experience more experience of life in general all right do are you interested in anything else I said what I liked drawing she said well that's a good idea that's quite creative why don't you pursue this drawing interest and maybe come back to me in in a year or two or three years time so I thought well that's the big elbow obviously so I went I said well thank you for seeing me shoot no come with us we got a lovely cafe along the line so we went to Cafe long and met Jerry and Jerry was very pleasant and they were very nice to me I got a telegram Saturday morning it said join us on Monday when I was in high street China I was Jerry coming out his office he said keepest yourself Joan is coming back to director a play and she'd like you in it I didn't audition for her I didn't meet her she's in I've seen the place nothing and when the first time I met her was that that first reading of the play remembered there was a ohw all realized some fellow Joe went to the title apparently he's the best and also like you I was a drama school boy we've done everything here dancing my forget everything yeah so be she didn't know that bit she but she was grateful for it when we could do what we could do yeah and Victor arrived was said to me and Barbara oh this woman down in Stratford that I've met she wants you to come and see her and I walked on the stage and there was the comics who had a great big dog oh that's very kind I mean I go and she says you know it's really kind of you and then she disappeared and then I was cool I went on the stage and Jerry raffles said now I want you to pretend you're and these two gentlemen here have come to help me and they are going to be the men that cost you and Jerry called out could you walk like a top this funny lady with a hat on who I couldn't see because she always said that goes yeah she came out she said oh I'm don't go don't go oh she said you've got the job here the barber has probably been through more or less the same but Mike and Bernie winters didn't did you come in then whilst you were in Scotland yeah doing the version of lovely whoo yes the first one with the job the top we knew she was coming and we were all very frightened because yeah by this time the stories that you guys are all heard about I mean can you imagine how we felt terrified without any back I said she said what have you done before I said oh no no because I've been since I was further and she said she said well what are you doing the moment I mean as a matter of fact I was in the Shilla company which was at the old wage I was doing a walk on because she could I didn't speak German and I had to learn he had to learn my line 9 and yah anyway I told that sounded good didn't it he'll accompany and she said what are you doing anyway I'm out of this don't let put me through this cuz I mean I really was herself and she's good see I was I'm sure she could you're a hat person never let me see you without a hat and she took it out on my own but the way I started was like Tony I was that Danny the ruse by them and I well I received an e for 11 years altogether but this was reasonably near the middle and Jerry and Joan had come in apparently and I got a note through my agent saying Joan Littlewood that Theatre Workshop wants to see you so I went along to Stratford East and she said right we start rehearsing on Monday she said yes what do you want to do I would her lovely war and then she said um do you want to do something while you're here and I got in my I remember it was sort of rainy and awful and I got a raincoat my red red plastic wellington boots on she said do you know any war songs I said yes she sent me Oh awesome and I sang um I'm so long way to tipperary so I'm in my red wellington boots she said take your coat off so I took the coat off and I got the rent wellington boots from whatever it was I had she said do two per area from my sizing it's a long way I turned up on Monday and she said where's your red Wellington so as you know we've rehearsed there then we came to Windham yeah and then we went to Broadway all this time she said to me you'll have really good military boots oh because I said what would I be wearing she said oh you'll you know you'll have the Pierrot cause them the usual thing that we did it not anymore and and military boots - I said oh that's good so we did rehearsals we came to win it 4-2 Windham and I'm still wearing the red wellington boots and I kept saying after each time we saw her after performance have got all these notes you know when am I gonna get my boots she said oh they're coming they're coming good and we get to Broadway we opened in Philadelphia as you remember and I'm still wearing the Riddler they're coming they're coming you know they've got to be specially minute they're coming come we open on Broadway after the opening night where's my you imagine the beauty you got the job you because you were with these 15 acting I was in the drama school very early I was in the drama school in 1961 but then because I didn't have a grant I had to work at nights at the thing I didn't have to and I worked at nights on all the productions which was wonderful for me because not only was I doing drama school in the daytime I'm doing professional theater at night and I'm doing everything from a assuming to the flies to the spotlights in a minute so Joan and Jerry got to know me through that but what she did do when we used to do work shops no workshops showcases for the school the very last one we did six months before I was leaving we did the hostage right and I was lucky enough to play the lead yeah and I know she crept in a few times at the back and saw it yeah because the girl in the bar used to give me the wave so when when when it came up for me time to leave school Jerry asked me to go into the company the time you'd gone off but Windham the word was out everybody wanted to join that really yeah and they could you when you're kind of working doing a walk-on for the chilly combination my god yeah everybody Warren Beatty yes I didn't and not just in there were all sorts of people Justin Cooke is the famous one was about a Michael Caine joined however she said to him after sure why she said you can't bloody well that go off and be a pillar while they used their Phoenix was very unhappy because she wanted to work with her so she went off and became the lead in Coronation Street you do things like lovely well you wouldn't even know what lovely war was we do not really I mean the scripts yes you did is a great favor yeah we did that you never stopped we we got to a point of opening and as usual Jo Jo night playing games any rate that she said to a Jerry swore at Jerry as she often did and she's it we can't effing open on on so-and-so like tomorrow night and he said I'm sorry toe but we got to we've got the press coming we got everybody else coming as he's a silly sod no when opened when we're ready but of course we did open we started with about three we I think we had three suggestions of a play of plays that were written there was one by the Welsh Ted Allen there's one of the Welsh writer Quinn Thomas who wrote a play but that that had the soldiers they were in khaki and there was a mistis there was a common soldier called Smith who then got shell-shocked and became Schmidt and wandered into the German lines but Joan hated all all that it was too formalized and she said one of the plays Ted Allen's in particular I think it was that all the advocators that we should have had better weapons and more weapons and should have been better equipped and she didn't want that she oldest he wanted an auntie of course auntie ones so she I don't know where exactly the day she came but she said that we were gonna do his P Rose because they were formed roughly around the same because during the four teams they were on the end of the pier any rate and his Pierrot she said we won't have to wear that terrible car key we could just had clowns and clowns are the only ones she's who could or should be allowed to die on stage but not assume a babes you can't stand up being soldiers that died in that war you but you but the clown can die or do almost anything or everything and later through the player course we started to out bits and pieces but that all got involved during the days I think we had about six weeks from the first read-through but from day to day we didn't really know what the end result was ever going to be the only through line is obviously the the years what evolved over the years and we rehearse I remember days and days we were loading a gun there was a howitzer well we were doing it send me my mum thing loading this gun days and days er that the judges threw it away from you and then it evolved over the run a three-month run as Stratford East is with constant changes but I blue which time we knew this not the script but we knew our position it in the show as well our characters were established so we took on those principal Roy that otherwise he came out of research both initially ostensibly by Charlie Chilton and with contributions from the actors and also at the obvious at living the quotes have to be I was the authentic what what Andrew Hague said of the prayers yes they were documented because they've gone into his Diaries and and remarks that soldiers that said and letters that they had written how did you how did you I got fed in we didn't know when that was going to happen or wind I mean obviously know either dikes particular in John Barrie or designed we acknowledge it remember wait we'd have to acknowledge that's good the biggest moments were when there was utter silence on the station that quiet just a little tiniest noise as the bulbs went across and it said you know gain 200 yards that was soldiers killed and I remember the first person who came backstage on the opening night John McGraw this blended director and writer back at that time and he came in I think I was sure and recipe with Griff Davis I'm angry you might have been there too and he came into the dressing room and his face was absolutely white I thought he'd been ill or sick his request to hello oh hello joy nice to see you he said I had no idea so many people had lost their lives oh yeah shoo boo boo I was a certainly on that all week a time with me we did the second one little we're gay brown can you hear me I'm just about to tell a little story of when we were on tour together with Kent and kenter's here and we got I think we were about four months into the tour and we hope to the Empire livable and Joan have been away she had been off in Broadway and she hadn't seen us for at least five months and she came back we came back on the Monday night and what's the show and then we've got a call for the next day's two o'clock in the afternoon for notes yeah Tuesday afternoon we all go in and we were standing on the stage and she gave us a bar looking and then she said right Kent tonight you play old John Lyons is part John Lyons you play all areas parts she changed completely around for that night we went on that night and it was and that night we all listened to each other that's why she gave you confidence beyond the stage she said that's your that's your natural habitat you're on the stage you love it on the stage but funny enough in contradiction to that she said I wish the action stops pleading to the audience love me not stop telling them to love you they do love you what they want to see is something interesting from you yes don't you cry let them cry at that time when we were playing East Berlin we were playing West Berlin at the another night but we were being paid in East Berlin and you couldn't take the money out so every day we're either well you're not gonna get it yes I do that was a Zurich all that lovely wall show has gone through how sturdy a show it was absolutely held up as a piece of recorded theater nobody really knew what it held doing it you felt a certain responsibility you managed to about when I'm doing a brilliant or good performance whether or who's in tonight or whatever we have a hair because you've suddenly found when we went the place like France or they threw things at us and then Germany where we got to the the football scene they just stood at that moment they stood up because that's what they're involved and that was the interval so they were they really shouted and here that we were sort of ambassador's it's be very interesting now its effect because as that play said this was a war to end all wars and we knew there was another one and then it goes on at the end of lovely Warren says so and so so more Wars what we know now between that time there's been a war every year somewhere and still is and it hasn't happened the difficulty with Jones stuff of that nature like we've done more with things like what the use of the they are literate pieces they had to be written in order to be published yes but they were like the prompt copy that was constantly changed when Joan changed all the costumes because we got into Philadelphia if you remember we're in Philadelphia after the first night she said they don't understand a word she said not a word that we do all that history that comes out they do understand flag-waving she said so we all wave flags at the beginning and she said when the girls come on we're not gonna wear all that other Victorian frilly folly she took strip that all away and they had gloves on their titties were families like that we said oh my god we made it she made it American Lord you know her approach to our plays was different her classic plays was different to what we all yes question she use Dennis Lasky a lot and that way we broke the players down into unit small chunks larger chunk but she still used some of those elements in lovely war I think the big thing about lovely war it's not it's only a history of the war but it's also a history of theater she uses different examples of the continental theatres the hero's musical forwardable so all the actors have to be able to be able to switch from one thing to suddenly be very real in the trenches that had to be very real and over to the Sunday broad caricatures of the generals because she poked more fun at the generals before but you never really poke fun at they of the soldiers the sergeants the drill sergeants gibberish otherwise she's very slanted her approach to but you've got to be able to do all those things to sing to dance and dare I say I told Woods at the time knew that oh this is clever yes this is why we thought it's our greatest achievement because I could see that something of the obvious pattern that she was in this there the thesis of thirties the effort this is the Vorta book this is musical and she weaved it all in and out so it was pretty seamless the things she told us what we must do or should do or can do or that's rubbish we mustn't do makeup know what makeup you're doing to make up acted acted act the part so so well no we were doing Christmas Carol and if they're all davis who was playing that like we're all were playing several roles in it but the curtain went up on a wonderful scene which appeared to be snowing live as obvious lisa you know one of those projectors things go also and then there was a strong wind blowing and our hats blew off when we chased it this is the opening to Christmas Carol Avery was was on to my right when she played it and we were ready to go up the over to was almost been struck and that there's no sign Joan was gonna take over no sign of Joan I said she's always good for Discipline jewelry is always there on the spot tells us what to do and then and eventually the curtain is about to go then then she arrived I've never seen anyone on stage with so much makeup you know she said well if we all told the same story it would be totally different and she did go wrong remember CSU wait with all our shows that we put on wonderful we used to say to us and why we're doing this Oh lion would you call it or you know who will be pursued there's a mistake Hey departed mentor ah sometimes there is our tormentor

Channel: theatrecloud

Views: 11,077

Rating: 4.9578948 out of 5

Keywords: Joan Littlewood, Oh What a Lovely War, Theatre Workshop, Theatre Cloud

Id: MmYjh-q-yZs

Length: 35min 19sec (2119 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 09 2015