Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs

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Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs
Written by David Halliwell
Directed by Mike Leigh
CharactersMalcolm Scrawdyke
Date premieredMarch 30, 1965 (1965-03-30)
Place premieredUnity Theatre, London
Original languageEnglish

Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs is a 1965 play by British dramatist David Halliwell. The play launched Halliwell's career and it remains his best-known work. It was produced on the West End, on Broadway (where it was retitled Hail Scrawdyke! for American licensing) and in numerous productions and revivals since. It was adapted into a feature film in 1974 and a radio play in 1992.

Contents

Origin

Author David Halliwell attended Huddersfield College of Art, from which he was later expelled, before training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. There, he met lifelong friend Mike Leigh. "He was always writing this play," Leigh recalled to The Guardian, referencing an original script that was approximately 191 pages long. Halliwell's desired title was One Long Wank.

The two rented the Unity Theatre to mount the first production as the "Dramagraph" group. [1] The two-week run was poorly attended. Halliwell took on the title role himself in a show that ran for four to six hours. Though Halliwell denied it was autobiographical, Leigh noted that there were some similarities between him and the main character, particularly in his iconoclastic personality and style.

"I got terribly depressed with the play to start with," Halliwell told the Daily Mail. "I'd been living on National Assistance, the Hampstead Theatre Club refused to put it on, the Royal Court didn't want to know. After it had finished a ten-day run at the Unity, still nothing happened." [2]

Despite its lack of success, it came to the attention of producer Michael Codron, who mounted a new production, cut down to a more manageable length. Codron brought it first to the Dublin Theatre Festival in the fall of 1965, where it generated significant attention, edited to a two and a half hour length. By January 1966, the run time was three hours when it opened in the West End. [3] [4]

Productions

World Premiere

The play premiered at London's Unity Theatre on 30 March 1965, where its run time was reportedly six hours long. It starred Halliwell himself in the title role, and was directed by Mike Leigh. It also starred longtime friend and Halliwell collaborator Philip Martin, who later served as a resident writer for his Quipu company and directed a number of Halliwell's works for radio. [5]

West End

Producer Michael Codron presented the play at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival that September, where it received good notices. [6] On 3 February 1966 it moved to the Garrick Theatre in London. Patrick Dromgoole directed, with the following cast:

Broadway

Originally to be retitled Follow the Leader, [7] the play premiered in the United States as Hail Scrawdyke!. It opened at the Booth Theatre on Broadway in November 1966. Directed by Alan Arkin, its cast consisted of:

Tim Preece was the only actor to transfer from the West End production. Victor Henry, 23 at the time of the production, hailed from Yorkshire, as did Halliwell. He originally auditioned for the part of Wick but was cast as the lead at the behest of the producer. He was announced as the star of the film version, to begin shooting the following year, though the part eventually went to John Hurt instead. [8]

Subsequent productions and revivals

Critical reception and impact

The West End production received significant attention though the run was short and poorly attended, lasting only 20 performances. Critic R.B. Marriott gave it a mixed review, disliking the theme and plot but praising the performances and the talent of Halliwell as a writer. [31] J.C. Trewin praised Hurt's performance, disliking the repetition and harshness of Halliwell's style but recognizing the author's promise. [32] The Daily Telegraph called Halliwell "a dramatist of real promise who seems at the moment to not have his gifts under control." [33] "Its merits much outweigh its defects," according to The London Times. [34]

Critic Alan Brien considered the production as the birth of a new, generational talent for playwriting. He praised it in a review of the original, lengthy Unity Theatre production and considered its revised form at the Dublin Theatre Festival as the discovery of the year. Of its debut in the West End, he said it was "...the first British play to attempt to show us, from the inside, what is bubbling beneath the Cavalier locks, the frosty scowls, the hairy greatcoats and military jeans of the new young," he wrote. [35] [36]

John Hurt's riveting three-hour performance was admired by director Fred Zinneman, resulting in his being cast in the film A Man for All Seasons , his first major film role. A few years later, he returned to the role of Scrawdyke for the film version of the play. [37]

A few weeks after the West End production closed, it was revived at Citizens Theatre in Glasgow by Michael Blakemore, and was subsequently picked up by other theatres. It became profitable and influential as its cult status spread. Halliwell used this success to start his own theatre company, Quipu. [38]

Later in 1966, the play was revived by the National Youth Theatre at the Court Theatre as their first production of a modern play. It was a week-long run, ending a season sponsored by the Daily Mail. [39] [40] [41] It starred a young Timothy Dalton and was hailed by critic R.B. Marriott, who had previously given the West End debut a tepid review. "It is a play with a vital life of its own, of such originality of feeling and approach, that it will somehow survive for a long time," Marriott said, comparing this potential longevity, in spite of divided critical views, to John Arden's Serjeant Musgrave's Dance . [9] The Daily Mail called it "a triumph." [2] The production was critically acclaimed, with praise for Dalton's performance and for the National Youth Theatre's transition from classical repertoire to important contemporary plays. It coincided with a rise in the popularity of the play, despite its initial lack of commercial success, with productions at the Edinburgh Theatre Festival and in Brussels [42] [43] [7]

In January 1967, drama critic Philip Hope-Wallace presented Halliwell with the Evening Standard award for "most promising playwright". [44]

In the United States, the play was retitled Hail Scrawdyke! for the premiere and was actor Alan Arkin's Broadway directing debut. The run was unsuccessful critically and commercially. Walter Kerr panned it, saying "Finally someone has gotten around to telling us what England's angry young men are so angry about...I'd rather not have known." [45] It closed after eight performances. [46] [47] [48] [49]

The 1968 production in Birmingham prompted outcry from some critics regarding the use of profanity in the play. Halliwell responded with an editorial defending his use of such words, stating that the obligation of artists is to extend awareness and to accurately relate to the world, and that shielding students from words they already know amounted to a situation in which "artificial problems are allowed to obliterate the consideration of genuine ones." [50]

In 1998, Ewan McGregor starred in a well-received revival at Hampstead Theatre, under the direction of Denis Lawson. It was McGregor's London theatre debut. [51] [52] [53]

Adaptations

Little Malcolm

Beatles guitarist George Harrison attended a production of Halliwell's play in 1966, and reportedly loved it; he agreed a few years later to finance the production of a feature film version. Through the Suba company, an entity created to realize the profits of the film Yellow Submarine, Harrison fully financed the approximately one million pound production costs. The film was shot in 1973 and directed by American filmmaker Stuart Cooper. It quickly became embroiled in the lawsuits and legal actions resulting from the breakup of the Beatles. At the 24th Berlin International Film Festival it won the Silver Bear award. Its brief theatrical run attracted critical acclaim, but the film was generally unavailable until a 2011 home media release. [54] [55] [56] [57]

BBC Radio adaptation

Halliwell, who wrote numerous plays for radio during his career, adapted the play for the BBC in 1992. It was broadcast on 1 November as an edition of the Sunday Play on BBC Radio 3. Directed by Philip Martin, it starred David Streames as Malcolm, Richard Pearce as Wick, Mark Kilmurry as Ingham, Adrian Lochhead as Nipple, and Annette Badland as Ann. [58]

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References

  1. ↑ Bishop, George W. (20 March 1965). "Cadillac that Has Come a Long Way". Daily Telegraph.
  2. 1 2 Ironside, Virginia (17 September 1966). "How Little David Overcame the Eunuchs". Daily Mail.
  3. ↑ Trueman, Matt (7 July 2015). "Mike Leigh on David Halliwell: 'He's one of the great writers who never happened'". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 August 2024.
  4. ↑ Hastings, Ronald (22 January 1966). "An Acting Trend to the Light". Daily Telegraph.
  5. ↑ Halliwell, David (1966). Little Malcolm and his Struggle Against the Eunuchs. London: Faber and Faber. p. 9.
  6. ↑ "Dublin Festival Play on Genesis of a Bully". The London Times. 22 September 1965.
  7. 1 2 Greville, Charles (24 November 1966). "A very pleasant way to become a big noise". The Daily Mail.
  8. ↑ "'Scrawdyke'". The Stage. 13 October 1966.
  9. 1 2 Marriott, R.B. (15 September 1966). "If only 'Malcolm' had got the audience it has at the Court!". The Stage.
  10. ↑ "Students endorse 'Eunuchs' realism". The Scotsman. 28 November 1966.
  11. ↑ G.M.H. (5 May 1967). "Forget the Critics! see this play for yourself". The Tewkesbury Register and Gazette.
  12. ↑ "On this week at-Cheltenham". The Stage. 11 May 1967.
  13. ↑ "On this week at-Oxford". The Stage. 19 October 1967.
  14. ↑ Connaughton, Ken (6 December 1967). "Small flaws obvious in SCR's 'Scrawdyke'". The Register.
  15. ↑ Hinman, Ralph (4 December 1967). "'Hail Scrawdyke' runs hot and cold". Press-Telegram.
  16. ↑ "On this week at-Birmingham". The Stage. 5 December 1968.
  17. ↑ Harford, Margaret (23 September 1969). "'Hail Scrawdyke!' in West Coast Debut". Los Angeles Times.
  18. ↑ Wagner, Dave (2 July 1970). "Players' 'Hail Scrawdyke!' can't impose social message on fun". The Capital Times.
  19. ↑ MacLeod, Beatrice (16 April 1971). "'Little Malcolm' Drummond Studio". Ithaca Journal.
  20. ↑ Funk, Nancy (22 September 1974). "We're putting on a play we like - it's called 'Scrawdyke'". Salt Lake City Tribune.
  21. ↑ Sainer, Arthur (3 January 1974). "When putsch comes to shove". The Village Voice. Retrieved 13 August 2024.
  22. ↑ Hall III, Oakley (2010). Jarry and Me. Absintheur Press. p. 103.
  23. ↑ "In and About Town - Off- and Off-Off Broadway". New York Magazine. January 31, 1977. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  24. ↑ "Hail Scrawdyke poster". archive.org. Proctors Collaborative. Retrieved 6 August 2024.
  25. ↑ Berliner, Fred (January 20, 1977). "This Week...". Show Business.
  26. ↑ Syna, Sy (January 1977). "Wisdoms Choice review: Hail Scrawdyke Premieres". Wisdom's Child.
  27. ↑ Fisher, John (14 March 1991). "Games without frontiers". The Stage.
  28. ↑ Windass, David (14 June 2001). "Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs". The Stage.
  29. ↑ Anglesey, Natalie (19 February 2004). "Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs". The Stage.
  30. ↑ Christie, Caroline. "Little Malcolm: The cult classic that never was". Little Atoms. Retrieved 18 August 2024.
  31. ↑ Marriott, R.B. (10 February 1966). "Malcolm and his crazy fantasies come to nothing...". The Stage.
  32. ↑ Trewin, J.C. (12 February 1966). "Nottingham's old arthurian legend retold". The Illustrated London News.
  33. ↑ Darlington, W.A. "Picture of a futile revolt". Daily Telegraph. No. 4 February 1966.
  34. ↑ "Fantasy Study of Power". The London Times. 4 February 1966.
  35. ↑ Brien, Alan (6 February 1966). "The Hitler from Huddersfield". Sunday Telegraph.
  36. ↑ Brien, Alan (3 October 1966). "The Unknown Great". Sunday Telegraph.
  37. ↑ Thomas, Bob (11 August 1967). "Director Huston favors English actor for role". Meriden Journal. Retrieved 13 August 2024.
  38. ↑ Wright, Allen (18 May 1970). "Profitable Disasters". The Scottsman.
  39. ↑ Marlborough, Douglas (10 September 1966). "Youth theatre gambles on Little Malcolm". The Daily Mail.
  40. ↑ "NYT London Season". The Stage. 21 July 1966.
  41. ↑ Marlborough, Douglas (15 July 1966). "Young actors choose first modern play". The Daily Mail.
  42. ↑ "Youth theatre up to date". The London Times. 13 September 1966.
  43. ↑ Lewis, Peter (13 September 1966). "The power of weird innocense". The Daily Mail.
  44. ↑ "At the drama awards". Evening Standard. 11 January 1967.
  45. ↑ Kerr, Walter (November 29, 1966). "The Theater: Hail Scrawdyk! Opens". New York Times. Retrieved 13 August 2024.
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  47. ↑ Morrison, Hobe (29 November 1966). "Scrawdyke strikes out". The Record.
  48. ↑ Chapman, John (30 November 1966). "'Hail Scrawdyke!' a Kooky Play about rebellious art students". The Daily News.
  49. ↑ Glover, William (29 November 1966). "'Hail Scrawdyke!' is mixture of fantasy, abrupt cruelty". The Daily Progress. Associated Press.
  50. ↑ Halliwell, David (30 November 1968). "David Halliwell: why four-letter words don't matter". Birmingham Post.
  51. ↑ Hepple, Peter (26 November 1998). "Big try but little substance". The Stage.
  52. ↑ Coveney, Michael (19 November 1998). "A laugh, this lout in a lot". Daily Mail.
  53. ↑ Wolf, Matt (22 November 1998). "Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs". Variety. Retrieved 18 August 2024.
  54. ↑ "Berlinale Archiv Jahresarchive 1974 Preisträger" . Retrieved 19 November 2010.
  55. ↑ Patterson, John (30 October 2011). "Eunarchy in the UK: George Harrison's first movie". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 August 2024.
  56. ↑ Hinxman, Margaret (4 January 1975). "The winter of their discontent keeps me contented!". Daily Mail.
  57. ↑ Gibbs, Patrick (3 January 1976). "Abject 'revenge' of four students". Daily Telegraph.
  58. ↑ "Sunday Play". BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 13 August 2024.
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