KIDDERMINSTER PLAYHOUSE
1946 - 1968 A Souvenir

History

Contents

REPERTORY 1947-1948

As soon as running a theatre settled into a routine it was obvious that the Playhouse must have its own repertory company. The first group was directed by the theatre manager, Jack Wood, who had the powerful support of his wife, Mae Harris. Jack Woolgar and another of the Nonentities, Marion Corbet Perrin joined the company as professionals. The dividing line was much thinner in those days.

The Nonentities opened with Bird in Hand, then Rose Without a Thorn, which offered Kenneth Rose his favourite part as, Henry VIII, Holbein's portrait to the life. His "Rose" was Stella Mason and Martin Wright and Robert Rolls were new names. Someone at the Door saw the first appearance of Winifred Batt and the name of Florence Tomes first appears in the cast of The Beggars' Opera.

Juno and the Paycock will be remembered for Melville Child's Joxer. In the supporting cast was the name of Peter Collins, who was an internationally-famous racing driver when he died ten years later in a crash in Germany. The Midnight Sun was the first of many musicals written and composed by Kenneth Rose in which he had the support of both local operatic societies. New names included Geoffrey Grinnall and the son of the theatre manager, Charles Wood, today one of the best-known of the modern playwrights. The season ended with a stylish production of You Never Can Tell, with Harry Beresford in great form as the gentle old waiter and first appearances by Marjorie Reeves and Kendal Grant, now a West End actor.
Other amateur work included The Lilac Domino by the KAOS, Goodnight Vienna by the Carpet Trades Operatic Society and one act plays in domestic and outside festivals, including the British Drama League area final for which the adjudicator was Margaret Leighton.

The first four plays of the Playhouse company were Smilin' Through, This was a Woman, East Lynne and While Parents Sleep - an indication, perhaps, that tastes have changed in twenty years.

The Young Vic were back with Shoemaker's Holiday and Noah, three different ballet companies appeared - Sadler's Wells, the Three Arts and the Ballets Negres. The Sherry Brothers brought the first of their popular revues - often able to pack the house - and pantomime began to establish itself with Jack and Jill and a local Dick Whittington.

Plays by touring companies now became too numerous to recall individually. Because this is a record we set them out by name :

The Family Upstairs; The Importance of Being Earnest; Peace Comes to Peckham; Jane Eyre; Without the Prince; Saloon Bar; Thunder Rock; Night Must Fall; Private Lives; Thy Name is Woman (with the late Phyllis Dixey); Kind Lady; Children of Wrath; Arsenic and Old Lace; The Hasty Heart; The Linden Tree; Fit For Heroes; No Place Like Home; Love on the Dole; The Cure for Love; Dark Summer; The Girl Who Couldn't Quite; The Shop at Sly Corner; Pick-up Girl.

Finance

The 44 weeks of the season played to an average of £427 a week, well down on the previous year. The novelty was already wearing off and the petrol ration had been reduced. Price-cutting began, with the top-price seats down from 7/6 to 5/-.

The Nonentities' seven plays showed a surplus of £1,433. The Playhouse made a loss of £429, but taking all sources of income into account the debt was reduced by £921 to £10,196.

Under the Labour government's Local Government Act of 1948, councils now had the power to spend up to a sixpenny rate on cultural activities. The Nonentities lost no time in applying for a grant, modestly suggesting £750. The council rejected the application by a small majority, Labour councillors generally voting in favour. In an editorial the Kidderminster Times deplored the political nature of a debate on such an issue. But it was not the last time it was to happen.