Have you ever acted in community or professional theatre?
We (yours truly) have never done so due to a lack of talent. Plus, we can’t be bothered memorizing lines. Our time is better spent in other ways, such as sampling pastries and shopping for books we’ll never read.
However, we were able to live the thea-tah experience vicariously with the British film, Curtain Up (1952). This farce looks at a professional theatre company located in what the film describes as a “murky industrial city.”
The troupe is itself industrious. They stage a new play every week, and while one play runs at night, they rehearse a second during the day.
(We cannot imagine memorizing double sets of lines for two separate plays. Do thespians never get their dialogues mixed up?)
We meet the troupe on a Monday morning as they look over a new script – a play written by the aunt of one of the theatre bigwigs. The play is awful, and the director (Robert Morley) loathes it instantly. “Remove the first 27 pages!” he barks.
To make matters worse, the author herself (Margaret Rutherford) turns up, uninvited, at rehearsal and meddles with sets and costumes, and insists on rambling backstories for the characters.
Alas, there is no alternative. The company is committed to the script, and they press on, distractions notwithstanding.
I love you, as long as you’re not more famous than me. Image: Alamy
Curtain Up is based on the stage play-within-a-play, On Monday Next, by British playwright Philip King. King’s work, “…with its fast-paced misunderstandings and quintessentially English humour, kept alive the tradition of British stage farce and influenced the post-war comedic scene,” says Concord Theatricals. “His plays became staples of repertory theatres and amateur companies…”¹
King wrote for, and acted on, the stage, and he knew the quirks and complexities involved thereof.
There are many such complexities in the Curtain Up group. The married lead actor (Liam Gaffney) enjoys the attentions of an investor’s wife, while his actress wife (Kay Kendall) tries to preserve their marriage. The couple is shocked when she’s offered a contract with a film studio – something Gaffney desires more than anything else.
Meanwhile, Morley wants to fire one of the actresses but, for all his bluster, lacks the nerve. He does, however, have the courage to tell Rutherford to re-write the entire first act, and have it ready by this afternoon.
There’s also a spark of romance between two of the younger actors, but their ardour suddenly cools when the girl’s father, a vicar, unexpectedly arrives for a visit.
You can see this is a madcap movie that plants lots of seeds, but doesn’t always let them sprout. At first glance, the whole thing seems a mess, because everything is left on the table.
But that’s where brilliance lives. This is one Monday in the life of a theatre company, and we’re invited as spectators. We don’t know how this group will sort itself out, but we later discover – SPOILER! – the play is a success.
We also realize, for all their foibles, these people are professionals who know their craft and See Things Through. You can’t help but admire them for it.
Author down! Image: csfd(dot)cz
They say the 1950s was the decade British theatre changed, with the appearance of dramas such as the absurdist Waiting for Godot (1953) and the kitchen sink* drama Look Back in Anger (1956).
According to the site Scribd, stage works presented before the 1950s were “safe”. They reflected the values of middle-class audiences and didn’t challenge widely-held beliefs.
Playwright Harold Pinter said, of those days, “[Audiences] didn’t want anything else, they were perfectly happy to put their feet up. That was what going to the theatre was normally about…going through various procedures which were known to the audience.”²
This can be seen in Morley’s reaction to Rutherford’s dreadful script. Although this audience may not have been the sophisticated London Smart Set, they knew bad writing when subjected to it. Morley’s insistence on reworking the script in an unexpected way was a bit of genius.
At the time, British theatre faced the same threats from films and television that American stages were facing – and these other, newer entertainments were much cheaper.
“The declining imperial status of Britain, economic disadvantages, and the emergence of the welfare state made society unstable,” says the International Journal of Innovations & Research Analysis. “This made way for a new generation of playwrights who did not subscribe to the genteel tastes of previous dramas.”³
But there’s nothing wrong in comfort entertainment. Who among us doesn’t have a favourite book or movie that we turn to when we crave something predictable?
Curtain Up is a frenetic film that feels like it’s traipsing off in all directions at once. This is not flaw; this is a reflection of the way life is sometimes, whether you’re in the theatre or not.
This post is part of THE 13th ANNUAL RULE, BRITANNIA BLOGATHON, hosted by A Shroud of Thoughts.
Curtain Up starring Robert Morley, Margaret Rutherford, Kay Kendall. Directed by Ralph Smart. Written by Michael Pertwee & Jack Davies. Constellation Films., 1952, B&W, 81 mins.
Silver Screenings 