Latin! or Tobacco and Boys

Last updated

Latin! or Tobacco and Boys
Latin! or Tobacco and Boys.jpg
Poster for the 1980 production
Written by Stephen Fry
Date premiered1979
Place premiered'The Playroom', Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
Original languageEnglish
Subjectpederastic and sado-masochisitic sexuality in a boys' school
Genrecomedy
SettingChartham Park Preparatory School For Boys

Latin! or Tobacco and Boys is a 1979 British play written by Stephen Fry. It was first performed at 'The Playroom', an L-shaped space in St Edwards Passage that belonged to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. [1] It is about life at the fictional Chartham Park Preparatory School For Boys, a prep school in England, and ends up in Morocco, via a homosexual relationship between a teacher and a 13-year-old student.

Contents

The title derives from Christopher Marlowe's claim, reported by Richard Baines, that "All they that love not Tobacco and Boys are fools".

Characters

Central characters

Only two characters actually appear on stage:

Students in Dominic's Latin class

These are referred to as if present, but their role is taken by the audience:

Plot

While the audience is walking in, a teacher (Dominic) is seen on stage marking exercise books 'with three different coloured biros'. [3] When the audience sits, the play starts. Dominic addresses the students (played by the audience), and after yelling at them, starts teaching, until Brookshaw enters.

After the students have supposedly left the room, Brookshaw enters. He explains to Dominic that he has been adding up merit-points accumulated by students, taking over the job for the headmaster while the latter is sick, [4] and has noticed that one student, Cartwright, has gained an enormous number of merits. Brookshaw then explains that he knows the reason for these excessive merits. It turns out that Dominic has been taking Cartwright for 'extra Latin periods' in which Dominic engages in sexual liaison with the 13-year-old Cartwright. The headmaster's daughter has seen what has been going on. Dominic admits to this, and says that making love with Cartwright is the only way in which he can feel young.

Brookshaw says that he won't tell anyone about the illicit affair if Dominic sends all of his naughty students to Brookshaw himself, instead of to the headmaster, to be beaten; and secondly, if Dominic will beat him for two days a week with a wet towel and other curious objects.

When the students' Common Entrance Examination results are announced, Cartwright's score is curiously high amidst the general mediocrity of the class, and Brookshaw recognises that Cartwright's test paper has been corrected by Dominic. As a result, Dominic is forced to leave the school.

Later, Brookshaw is serving as acting headmaster while the headmaster is sick. He reads a letter to the assembly from "Ghanim Ibn Mahmud" and "Abu Hassan Basim", Arabic names adopted by Dominic and Cartwright. It turns out that Dominic and Cartwright have become Muslims; they now live in Morocco, and Dominic has adopted Cartwright. After the assembly, Brookshaw starts writing a reply to the letter, and the play ends.

Chartham Merit-adding System

The Chartham merit-adding system is the system in which boys are commended or censured, and are rewarded or punished as a result. If a boy is good, he gets a merit; if he is very good, he gets a 'plus', if he gets 3 pluses, he gets "free tuck" (which means free food),. [5] Then, if the boy does very well in all fields, and shows "initiative far beyond his age", [6] he gets a star, worth 25 points, and a 5-pound "tuck token". [7] The opposites of these things respectively are the demerit, the 'minus' (if a boy gets 3 minuses, the boy gets no tuck at all), and the 'black hole' (minus 25 points, "offender eats crap, is caned; ritually kicked out by headmaster every morning"). [8]

Style

The play is known for its sexual explicitness, something of a trait of Stephen Fry's earlier writings. This type of writing is also seen in Fry's 1991 book The Liar . [9]

Critical reception

The play was well received when it first played at the 1980 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and it won the Fringe First prize. Mark Cook of 'Time Out' Magazine said that it was a 'chuckle provoking piece', [10] whereas Kieron Quirke of The Observer said that it was a play written by 'a clever 22-year-old seeing how many times he can say "bum" and still be taken seriously'. [11]

Revivals

The play has had many revivals, including one at the Burton Taylor Studio in central Oxford, [12] The Cock Tavern Theatre [13] [14] in Kilburn, and The Everyman Theatre of Canberra (Australia). [15]

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

For the 1980 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Latin! was performed at Riddles Court, Royal Mile, by the Cambridge University Mummers. The dates were 18–23 and 25–30 August 1980, at 5.15 p.m., tickets costing 90p. It was part of a double bill, the other play being written by Robert Farrar, then a fellow-undergraduate. It was directed by Simon Cherry, with Stephen Fry playing Dominic Clarke, and John Davies, a law undergraduate at Cambridge, playing Herbert Brookshaw. [16] It won the Fringe first prize.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Fry, Stephen (2010). The Fry Chronicles. London, England: Penguin Books. ISBN   978-0-14-103980-0. p141
  2. ↑ Fry, Stephen. Paperweight. London, England. Arrow Books. ISBN   0-09-945702-4. p. 437
  3. ↑ Fry, Stephen. Paperweight. London, England. Arrow Books. ISBN   0-09-945702-4. p. 437
  4. ↑ Fry, Stephen. Paperweight. London, England. Arrow Books. ISBN   0-09-945702-4. p. 443
  5. ↑ Fry, Stephen. Paperweight. London, England. Arrow Books. ISBN   0-09-945702-4. p. 445. Fig. 1
  6. ↑ Fry, Stephen. Paperweight. London, England. Arrow Books. ISBN   0-09-945702-4. p. 445. Fig. 1
  7. ↑ Fry, Stephen. Paperweight. London, England. Arrow Books. ISBN   0-09-945702-4. p. 445. Fig. 1
  8. ↑ Fry, Stephen. Paperweight. London, England. Arrow Books. ISBN   0-09-945702-4. p. 445. Fig. 1
  9. ↑ The Liar (1991), Stephen Fry
  10. ↑ from http://www.thinknoevil.com/latin_review.htm Archived 17 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  11. ↑ 2002
  12. ↑ "Latin! Or Tobacco and Boys".
  13. ↑ "Home". cocktaverntheatre.com.
  14. ↑ "Latin! Or Tobacco and Boys - Stephen Fry Play in London « the New Adventures of Mr Stephen Fry". Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
  15. ↑ "Latin! Or Tobacco and Boys | Everyman Theatre".
  16. ↑ Fry, Stephen (2010). The Fry Chronicles. London, England: Penguin Books. ISBN   978-0-14-103980-0

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Fry</span> English actor, comedian and presenter (born 1957)

Stephen John Fry is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director, narrator and writer. He first came to prominence as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring in A Bit of Fry & Laurie (1989–1995) and Jeeves and Wooster (1990–1993). He also starred in the sketch series Alfresco (1983–1984) alongside Laurie, Emma Thompson and Robbie Coltrane, and in Blackadder (1986–1989) alongside Rowan Atkinson. Since 2011, he has served as president of the mental health charity Mind.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Berkhamsted School</span> Independent day school in England

Berkhamsted School is a public school in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England. The present school was formed in 1997 by the amalgamation of the original Berkhamsted School, founded in 1541 by John Incent, Dean of St Paul's Cathedral, Berkhamsted School for Girls, established in 1888, and Berkhamsted Preparatory School. The new merged school was initially called Berkhamsted Collegiate School, but reverted to Berkhamsted School in 2008. In 2011 Berkhamsted School merged with Heatherton House School, a girls' preparatory school in Amersham, to form the Berkhamsted Schools Group. The Group acquired Haresfoot School in Berkhamsted and its on site day nursery in 2012, which became Berkhamsted Pre-Preparatory School for children aged three to seven, and Berkhamsted Day Nursery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reading School</span> Grade II listed state grammar school in the United Kingdom

Reading School is a state grammar school for boys with academy status in the English town of Reading, the county of Berkshire. It traces its history back to the school of Reading Abbey and is, thus, one of the oldest schools in England, although it closed for a few years in the 1860s. It is a state boarding school. There are no tuition fees for day pupils, and boarders only pay for food and lodging. Reading is one of the best state schools in the UK according to the GCSE and A-level tables and has consistently ranked in the top ten.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">C. B. Fry</span> English sportsman

Charles Burgess Fry was an English sportsman, teacher, writer, editor and publisher, who is best remembered for his career as a cricketer. John Arlott described him with the words: "Charles Fry could be autocratic, angry and self-willed: he was also magnanimous, extravagant, generous, elegant, brilliant – and fun ... he was probably the most variously gifted Englishman of any age."

<i>If....</i> 1968 British film by Lindsay Anderson

If.... is a 1968 British satirical drama film produced and directed by Lindsay Anderson, and starring Malcolm McDowell as Mick Travis, and also starring Richard Warwick, Christine Noonan, David Wood, and Robert Swann. A satire of English public school life, the film follows a group of pupils who stage a savage insurrection at a boys' boarding school. The film was the subject of controversy at the time of its release, receiving an X certificate for its depictions of violence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bedford Modern School</span> Public school in Bedfordshire, England

Bedford Modern School is a Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference independent school in Bedford, England. The school has its origins in The Harpur Trust, born from the endowments left by Sir William Harpur in the sixteenth century. BMS comprises a junior school and a senior school.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Frost</span> British comedian

Stephen Frederick Eustace Frost is an English actor and comedian.

Paperweight is a collection of writings by Stephen Fry, first published in the United Kingdom in 1992.

Forty Years On is a 1968 play by Alan Bennett. It was his first West End play. It takes its name from the Harrow School song.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Poison Arrow</span> 1982 single by ABC

"Poison Arrow" is a song by English pop band ABC, released as the second single from their debut studio album, The Lexicon of Love (1982).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">King's Scholar (Westminster School)</span>

The Kings's Scholarships are forty-eight scholarships at Westminster School, (re)founded in 1560 by Queen Elizabeth I. The scholars take part in each coronation in Westminster Abbey, acclaiming the new monarch by shouting "Vivat". They also have the right to observe Parliament. They have the abbreviation KS on school lists; their house is "College".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ashdown House, East Sussex</span> English country house in East Grinstead

Ashdown House is a country house and former school near Forest Row, East Sussex, England, a Grade II* listed building.

The Cambridge Footlights Revue is an annual revue by the Footlights Club, a group of comedy writer-performers at the University of Cambridge. Three of the more notable revues are detailed below.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Expurgation</span> Form of censorship of artistic or other media works

An expurgation of a work, also known as a bowdlerization or fig-leaf edition, is a form of censorship that involves purging anything deemed noxious or offensive from an artistic work or other type of writing or media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Fry bibliography and filmography</span>

Stephen Fry is an English actor, comedian, author and television presenter. With Hugh Laurie, as the comedy double act Fry and Laurie, he co-wrote and co-starred in A Bit of Fry & Laurie, and the duo also played the title roles in Jeeves and Wooster. Fry played the lead in the film Wilde, played Melchett in the Blackadder television series, and was the host of celebrity comedy trivia show QI. He has contributed columns and articles for newspapers and magazines, and has written four novels and three autobiographies, Moab Is My Washpot, The Fry Chronicles, and More Fool Me: A Memoir.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public school (United Kingdom)</span> Fee-charging schools in England and Wales

In England and Wales, a public school is a type of fee-charging private school originally for older boys. They are "public" in the sense of being open to pupils irrespective of locality, denomination or paternal trade or profession, nor are they run for the profit of a private owner.

John Cartwright is an English former professional footballer who played as an inside forward. He later became a coach.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cock Tavern Theatre</span> Pub theatre in London, England

The Cock Tavern Theatre was a pub theatre located in Kilburn in the north-west of London. The venue specialised in new works and critical revivals. Resident companies Good Night Out Presents and OperaUpClose were also based at the venue. It shut in 2011, due to health and safety problems regarding the Victorian staircases that serviced the theatre.

<i>The Boy James</i>

The Boy James is a play written by Alexander Wright that opened in 2010 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and featured as part of Belt Up Theatre's 2010 Edinburgh season, The House Above.

Arthur Edward Foot CBE, was an English schoolmaster, educationalist and academic. He was a science master at Eton College from 1923 to 1932. In 1935, he was invited to India to head a newly opened all-boys boarding school, the Doon School, where he was the first headmaster from 1935 to 1948. He then returned to England as head of another new school, Ottershaw.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.