Young England (play)

Last updated

Young England was a patriotic melodrama written by Walter Reynolds. It ran for 278 performances in the West End in 1934. [1] The play attracted a cult following, transferring from the Victoria Palace Theatre to the Kingsway Theatre and then to Daly's Theatre. [2]

Contents

Reynolds was 83 at the time he wrote Young England, and was the owner of several theatres. It was popular with audiences due to its unintentional humour. [3] The show was panned by critics; TIME magazine wrote that they had described it as "the worst show that had opened in London in 20 years". [4] The Times described the play as a "pretty melodrama" that was "betrayed by shame-faced acting" in a September 1934 review, but by March of the following year noted that the "audience are definitely over-rehearsed" speaking the performers lines in "anticipation of their cues". [2]

The plot concerns the machinations of Major Carlingford, a 'betrayer of women, shady promoter and sanctimonious humbug' who conspires with his son to sabotage the plans of a young scoutmaster, parliamentary candidate and councillor who wants to improve the River Thames at Charing Cross. [5] The humorous writer Stephen Pile described it as a 'serious work describing the triumph of good over evil and the Boy Scout movement'. [5]

Stephen Pile included it as the 'Worst West End Play' in his Book of Heroic Failure. [5]

In a December 1939 article TIME magazine wrote that "London's bright boys just had to see what the worst show in 20 years looked like. They screamed with laughter at its superpatriotic goings-on, involving gallant officers, dastardly villains, prostitutes, Boy Scouts, Girl Guides, taints of illegitimacy, stolen papers, stolen cash, the Union Jack". [4] Reynolds would remonstrate with misbehaving members of the audience during performances of the play. [5]

Original cast

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sweeney Todd</span> Fictional serial killer barber

Sweeney Todd is a fictional character who first appeared as the villain of the penny dreadful serial The String of Pearls (1846–1847). The original tale became a feature of 19th-century melodrama and London legend. A barber from Fleet Street, Todd murders his customers with a straight razor and gives their corpses to Mrs. Lovett, his partner in crime, who bakes their flesh into meat pies. The tale has been retold many times since in various media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leonard Rossiter</span> British actor (1926–1984)

Leonard Rossiter was an English actor. He had a long career in the theatre but achieved his highest profile for his television comedy roles starring as Rupert Rigsby in the ITV series Rising Damp from 1974 to 1978, and Reginald Perrin in the BBC's The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin from 1976 to 1979.

<i>Journeys End</i> 1929 play written by R. C. Sherriff

Journey's End is a 1928 dramatic play by English playwright R. C. Sherriff, set in the trenches near Saint-Quentin, Aisne, towards the end of the First World War. The story plays out in the officers' dugout of a British Army infantry company from 18 to 21 March 1918, providing a glimpse of the officers' lives in the last few days before Operation Michael.

In-yer-face theatre is a term used to describe a confrontational style and sensibility of drama that emerged in Great Britain in the 1990s. This term was borrowed by British theatre critic Aleks Sierz as the title of his book, In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today, first published by Faber and Faber in March 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Kitchen</span> English actor

Michael Roy Kitchen is an English actor and television producer, best known for his starring role as Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle in the ITV drama Foyle's War, which comprised eight series between 2002 and 2015. He also played the role of Bill Tanner in two James Bond films, and that of John Farrow in BBC Four's comedy series Brian Pern.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victoria Palace Theatre</span> West End theatre in London, England

The Victoria Palace Theatre is a West End theatre in Victoria Street, in the City of Westminster, opposite Victoria Station. The structure is categorised as a Grade II* listed building.

Moira Buffini is an English dramatist, director, and actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scouting in popular culture</span>

Since Scouting began in 1907, it has entered into many elements of popular culture, including movies, TV and books.

Rope, retitled Rope's End for its American release, is a 1929 English play by Patrick Hamilton. It was said to be inspired by the real-life murder of 14-year-old Bobby Franks in 1924 by University of Chicago students Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tod Slaughter</span> English actor

Norman Carter Slaughter, also known as Tod Slaughter, was an English actor, best known for playing over-the-top maniacs in macabre film adaptations of Victorian melodramas.

<i>The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby</i> (play)

The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby is an 8½ hour-long adaptation of Charles Dickens’ 1839 novel, performed in two parts. Part 1 was 4 hours in length with one interval of 15 minutes. Part 2 was 4½ hours in length with two intervals of 12 minutes. It was originally presented onstage over two evenings, or in its entirety from early afternoon with a dinner break. Later it was presented on television over four evenings.

<i>Moose Murders</i> 1983 Broadway Theatre play notorious for its awfulness

Moose Murders is a play by Arthur Bicknell, self-described as a mystery farce. A notorious flop, it is now widely considered the standard of awfulness against which all Broadway failures are judged, and its name has become synonymous with those distinctively bad Broadway plays that open and close on the same night. It had its single performance at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre on February 22, 1983.

<i>Love Story</i> (1944 film) 1944 British film

Love Story is a 1944 British black-and-white romance film directed by Leslie Arliss and starring Margaret Lockwood, Stewart Granger, and Patricia Roc. Based on a short story by J. W. Drawbell, the film is about a concert pianist who, after learning that she is dying of heart failure, decides to spend her last days in Cornwall. While there, she meets a former RAF pilot who is going blind, and soon a romantic attraction forms. Released in the United States as A Lady Surrenders, this wartime melodrama produced by Gainsborough Pictures was filmed on location at the Minack Theatre in Porthcurno in Cornwall, England.

<i>The Old Fashioned Way</i> (film) 1934 film by William Beaudine

The Old Fashioned Way is a 1934 American comedy film produced by Paramount Pictures. The film was directed by William Beaudine and stars W. C. Fields. The script was written by Jack Cunningham based on a story by "Charles Bogle".

<i>Slaves</i> (film) 1969 film

Slaves is a 1969 American drama film directed by Herbert Biberman. The film stars Dionne Warwick, Ossie Davis, and Stephen Boyd.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Middlemass</span> American actor and playwright (1883–1949)

Robert Middlemass was an American playwright and stage actor, and later character actor with over 100 film appearances, usually playing detectives or policemen.

<i>Poison Pen</i> (1939 film) 1939 British film

Poison Pen is a 1939 British drama film directed by Paul L. Stein and starring Flora Robson, Reginald Tate and Ann Todd. It was based on the 1937 play of the same title by Richard Llewellyn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virginia Brissac</span> American actress

Virginia Brissac was a popular American stage actress who headlined theatre companies from Vancouver to San Diego during the heyday of West Coast Stock in the early 1900s. An ingénue and leading lady known for her natural style and charm on stage, Brissac played with equal success in both comedies and dramas and went on to have a long second career as a character actress in film and television.

Young Sinners is a comedic play by Elmer Harris that first premiered at the Morosco Theatre in New York on November 28, 1929. The three act play was first revived at the New Yorker Theatre on April 20, 1931. It was then revived again at the Ambassador Theatre in New York on March 6, 1933. The cast changed during each revival, but Dorothy Appleby played Constance Sinclair in the original and the two revivals. The 1931 film Young Sinners is based on the play.

The Devil and Daniel Webster is a folk opera in one act by American composer Douglas Moore. The opera's English-language libretto was written by Stephen Vincent Benét who also penned the 1936 short story of the same name upon which the work is based. Composed from 1937 through 1939, it premiered on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre on 18 May 1939. The first opera by Moore to achieve wide success, it has remained a part of the opera repertory. Containing spoken words as well as sung material, Martin Bookspan stated that "the opera is really a 20th-century American singspiel, with extensive stretches of dialogue alternating with the musical numbers." The opera is set in 1840s New Hampshire within the fictional town of Cross Corners. Described as an "American Faust" for its similarities to the German tale with an American milieu, the opera tells the story of the farmer Jabez Stone who sells his soul to the devil. When the devil comes to collect his soul he is thwarted by the statesman Daniel Webster whose clever tongue outmaneuvers him.

References

  1. ↑ Simon Trussler (21 September 2000). The Cambridge Illustrated History of British Theatre. Cambridge University Press. pp. 298–. ISBN   978-0-521-79430-5 . Retrieved 4 November 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 J. P. Wearing (15 May 2014). The London Stage 1930-1939: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. pp. 381–. ISBN   978-0-8108-9304-7.
  3. ↑ Jonathan Law (16 December 2013). The Methuen Drama Dictionary of the Theatre. A&C Black. pp. 554–. ISBN   978-1-4081-3148-0.
  4. 1 2 "The Theatre: Wrong Door, Wrong Door". TIME . 25 December 1939. Retrieved 12 July 2020.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Stephen Pile (4 October 2012). The Not Terribly Good Book of Heroic Failures: An intrepid selection from the original volumes. Faber & Faber. pp. 108–. ISBN   978-0-571-27734-6.
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.