Miss Littlewood
A New musical by Sam Kenyon
Book, Music, Lyrics by Sam Kenyon
Directed by Erica Whyman
Designed by Tom Piper
Music Supervisor & Orchestrator – Sarah Travis
Royal Shakespeare Company
Swan Theatre at the RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon
Saturday 30th June 2018, 13.30
CAST
Everyone has ensemble roles throughout. There are seven “Joans”
Areth Ayeh – Joan / Frank Norman
Daisy Badger – Sister Nary / Rosalie Williams / Reporter
Greg Barnett – Robert Littlewood, Joan’s father / Jimmie Miller (aka Ewan MacColl) / Cedric Price + guitar, trombone
Clare Burt – Joan Littlewood main character & narrator
Laura Elsworthy – Kate Littlewood, Joan’s mother / Beattie / Shelagh Delaney
Sandy Foster- Sister Gertrude / Woman with pears / Jean Newlove / Joan
Amanda Hadingue – Sister Susannah / Nick / Archie Harding / John Bury / Joan / Victor Spinetti + violin
Dawn Hope – Caroline Emily / Hal Prince / Joan
Solomon Israel – Gerry Raffles
Emily Johnstone – Joan / Pearl Turner / Barbara Young / Lionel Bart / Barbara / Barbara Windsor
Natasha Lewis – Nellie
Sophia Nomvete – Joan / Avis Bunnage
Tam Williams – Gielgud’s Macbeth / Howard Goorney / Murray Melvin / Bellboy
MUSICIANS
Sufia Manya – clarinet / bass clarinet / flute
Andrew Stone-Fewings- trumpet
Samantha Norman – violin, viola
Matthew Forbes – cello / double bass
Kevin Waterman – percussion
Tarek Merchant – keyboard / accordion
Jack Hopkins – keyboard programming
I bought the play text at half time. Say no more. I don’t always do that. The true story is Joan Littlewood’s progress from illegitimate child of a teenage mother, born in 1914, to one of the greatest British theatre pioneers and founder of the Theatre Workshop in Stratford East, and yes, the play gets some good laughs from Stratford East in London v Stratford-Upon-Avon where it’s being performed.
Laura Ellsworthy as Kate (Joan’s pregnant teenage mum) with her parents, Caroline Emily (Dawn Hope) and Robert (Gregg Barnett)
The programme has an essay on women’s place in history. The play has Joan Littlewood deliver the quote “Why do we know about so many unremarkable men and so few remarkable women?” Surely Joan Littlewood was the exception to that, or rather one of the few we do know about? I thought her prominent place in theatre history alongside (say) Peter Brooks was secure. Inevitably, major actors turned directors like Olivier are remembered more than directors (or maybe just have larger theatres named after them), but even back in the late 60s, Joan Littlewood was heavily discussed in theatre history classes. Whatever, with ten women to three men in the cast, following The Fantastic Follies of Mr Rich with many of the same actors, the RSC is cruising effortlessly to 50 / 50 gender balance over the season, without having to shout about it in Globe style.
Clare Burt as Joan Littlewood awards the cap to “Joan 1” (Emily Johnstone)
The staging is fluid and superb. It breaks the fourth wall twice, very funny, right at the start. No plot spoilers! We have Joan Littlewood (Clare Burt) with her distinctive cap. She stands outside the play, though gives directions and watches the action throughout … except for a couple of scenes of her past life that she declines to watch. At points, she awards the “cap” to other company members, who then become “Joan.” They even have arguments amongst the cast when Joan Littlewood decides to change the current “Joan” by offering the hat to another actor … as directors do. Later we may see multiple “Joans” on stage performing together. Basically the hat passed to older actresses as the time ticks away. A total of seven Joans. I wondered if this was inspired partly by I’m Not There, (2007) the film by Todd Haynes, where six actors, including Cate Blanchett, play different aspects of Bob Dylan’s life.
Everyone plays multiple roles except Clare Burt as “directing, narrating Joan” and Solomon Israel as love of her life, Gerry Raffles. Clare Burt played Joan playing both the “Principal of RADA” and “The Arts Council” – both very funny, and played with “the current Joan” opposite her. I would say that was a role within a role rather than a change of role. Actually, one bit they missed (they had to cut a lot with such a rich life) was Joan Littlewood as an actress – she was much acclaimed for her mid-50s Brecht.
Areth Ayeh as Joan at age 16, with her art teacher ‘Nick’ (Amanda Hadingue)
Ten women and three men in the cast. They cover forty-two roles, some of them fleeting. Sam Kenyon says they tried it with eight women and just one man at the initial workshop reading. The play text notes that changes can be done with simply hats, and you only need a basic piano, but here (I’m pleased to say) the changes of costume were elaborate, and carefully tuned to the projected year too. A triumph for backstage costume management, I’d say. I noted little details … phones are brought on stage several times, and each one is different, and right for the year. There was also a full sounding band to accompany, and in the second half some of them moved down to stage level. As in Mrs Rich, Amanda Hadingue added violin, and two of the cast had a go at trombone, one a trumpet. Greg Barnett added guitar as “Jimmie Millar.”
Amanda Hadingue demonstrates best the range these actors were doing. She does a schoolteacher nun, a 1920s Lesbian art teacher (‘Nick’), Victor Spinetti, John Bury and Archie Harding as well as being “Joan 5” in which she suddenly seems a different actor. Add the solo violin. All distinctive, all funny.
The Wanderer’s Lament. Greg Barnett as Jimmie Miller (aka Ewan MacColl). Amanda Hadingue accompanying on violin
Greg Barnett captured the essence of Jimmie Miller, Joan Littlewood’s first husband, and founder of the Communist theatre group The Red Megaphones. Jimmie changed his name to Ewan MacColl, and it’s satisfying to know that Ewan MacColl’s studied authenticity was fake. I saw him perform po-faced in a folk club in the 60s. Apparently, he was an awful blinkered man, flying into a rage at the mention of his greatest composition, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, as transformed and performed by Roberta Flack. She tweaked the melody too, turning an excellent song into a masterpiece. He couldn’t forgive her. He ran the Critics Group, inventing strict guidelines for “a folk performance.” Fun was not included. A recent story by Shirley Collins:
I first met him when I was 20 and my antenna went up straightaway. I genuinely don’t want to be unpleasant, but he was unpleasant to me, quite sexist, and pretentious and pompous – words that should never be applied to a folk singer. He said to me that I shouldn’t wear nail varnish. What a wretched thing to say to a young woman with an interest; what a way of putting someone down. He was self-invented; there seemed nothing truthful about him, and that’s always concerned me greatly. He was an actor, really, even as a singer. The way he’d turn his chair, sit astride it, put his hand to his ear… my heart would sink. I know it’s not fair as he’s not here to defend himself, but I’ve had my opinion since I first met him, and I’ve not seen any reason to change it. Shirley Collins, The Guardian 25 Jan 2015
She is correct. He was an actor originally who increasingly became interested in folk music. Yes, he was a great folk archivist, and he also wrote Dirty Old Town, but he was also a pedantic arsehole, and that came across. I found it particularly amusing that The Wanderer’s Lament as performed by Greg Barnett had the sort of intricate orchestration that MacColl eschewed. I thought it the best song in the show, and the backing was beautifully arranged. It broke away from that generic “stage musical” style for a change.
Sophia Nomvete as the third Joan, with Solomon Israel as her life-long love, Gerry Raffles
Musicals usually list the songs in the programme, and you see A Taste of Honey and Fings Ain’t What They Used To Be and expect to hear them. You won’t. The song A Taste of Honey was written for the Broadway production of Shelagh Delaney’s play in 1960, and so did not appear in Joan Littlewood’s 1958 production. However Fings Ain’t What They Used To Be was notable by its absence (except a line or two), especially as listed as a programme item. I assume permissions were the problem in using the original. You’d expect the second half when Joan Littlewood was prominent in the fifties and sixties to have a musical flavour of the era, but it doesn’t. I can’t see much difference between the music of Fings Ain’t What They Used To Be or Oh, What A Lovely War and a contemporary cheerful loveable Cockney musical like Half A Sixpence.
Oh, What A Lovely War! extract
So while the use of music in serious theatre (rather than West End musicals) was one of Joan’s contributions, the actual music wasn’t innovative. But hey, she was married to Ewan MacColl. You wouldn’t expect her taste to be cutting edge.
Sandy Foster as the next Joan, Solomon Israel as Gerry Raffles behind
In the second half, there was a dizzying parade of named people: Hal Prince, Victor Spinetti, Lionel Bart, Shelagh Delaney, Jean Newlove, Avis Bunnage, Barbara Windsor, two other actresses named Barbara, Cedric Price, Frank Norman, Murray Melvin. Some of them get very little little stage time to establish themselves, though every performance in these roles is strong … and nearly all are played by the women. Tam Williams plays the actor Murray Melvin, who is interviewed with Sam Kenyon in the programme. Murray’s tales of working with Joan Littlewood inspired the play. He was in the original A Taste of Honey along with Avis Bunnage.
Emily Johnstone’s song as Barbara Windsor is a highlight. I’d got confused by two other actresses named Barbara who Gerry Raffles was having an affair with. Emily Johnstone played all three, and the mark of Barbara Windsor was a switch to a blonde wig. The old Bobby Vee song Please Don’t Ask About Barbara started playing in my head. Barbara Windsor’s association with the Theatre Workshop while being a Carry On films star then a mainstay of Eastenders is one of those oddities that prove that good actors can flourish in serious theatre, soap opera and broad farce genres. I don’t think they mention her roles in Fings Ain’t What They Used To Be and her Tony Award for Oh, What A Lovely War!
The theatrical company
It’s so hard to balance these people in her story, but Taste of Honey writer Shelagh Delaney (Laura Elsworthy) was another I’d like to have seen more of, especially as two of the cast of the 1958 production … Avis Bunnage and Murray Melvin appear in the story. Lionel Bart (also Emily Johnstone) is blink and you’ll miss him. The cameo of Jean Newlove (Sandy Foster) who introduced Rudolf Laban choreography and dance to the company is another character you want to develop. For example, Jean Newlove married Ewan MacColl and was the mother of Kirsty MacColl. Rosalie Williams, an actor in the company (Daisy Badger) does get more time, and is a strong antidote to Joan – one who dares criticize her.
Daisy Badger as Rosalie Williams, Clare Burt as Joan Littlewood with roll-up
The overall length was just right (2 hours 20 minutes) and Sam Kenyon deserves credit for compressing so much and for avoiding the temptation to simply add half an hour to let these glorious characters (and lovely interpretations here) have more space. Various spicy bits of history (MI5 was watching MacColl and Littlewood in the 1930s, and had his songs banned from radio) had to go. This sort of play works best at 140 minutes or less.
Amanda Hadingue’s turn as Joan
The second half veers a little towards excessive assumed knowledge of the real history IF you haven’t bought a programme. It’s well worth buying one, well, it always is at the RSC in spite of the free cast sheets, but in this case there’s a clear synopsis in a list of Littlewood’s Life and Times. Just one page. A read through before the start is all you need, but if you know little of 50s / 60s musical theatre, you may find the number of characters, and why they were important, confusing without consulting it. Some productions are mentioned so fleetingly, like Sparrers Can’t Sing and They Might Be Giants. They’re definitely no longer ‘general knowledge.’
The play text notes that accents can shift in performance, but the writer would like Jimmie Miller (Salford) and Avis Bunnage (Chorlton-cum-Hardy) to be as authentic as possible. Correct, and it was done.
Avis Bunnage (Sophia Nomvete) is particularly important in discussing the use of a Northern accent on stage, unusual at the time. The real Avis became an actor in 1947, and later joined the Theatre Workshop company. She played the mother in A Taste of Honey in 1958. Was use of Northern accents in a “serious” setting totally Joan Littlewood’s innovation? I thought the appointment of Wilfred Pickles as a BBC radio announcer with a Yorkshire accent in World War II is most quoted as a break through the walls of Advanced RP.
Sophia Nomvete is Ava Bunnage
There are lines I recalled without consulting the script. It’s full of ones that stick. Joan was conceived in “a gusset shifter down by the station, New Year’s Eve 1913, and the champagne of Jack’s orgasm spawned yours truly.” Another was Joan disparaging the “indiscriminate American standing ovation” quite rightly. There are “language warnings.” Joan effs and blinds at will, but I was impressed by her using the C-word just the once, with full force and impact.
I particularly enjoyed the final dance and line up. Sophia Nomvete, a middle-era Joan, takes the centre role. Having seen her in Vice Versa I know that she has such charisma, humour and energy that you couldn’t put anyone else there. And Avis Bunnage’s Northern accent gets the final line.
Overall, I loved it. I thought the direction, script, cast, and performance were five star. Being harsh, I might take off one for the music. I’d prefer to take 0.5 off but I don’t want to get into half stars. The arrangements were excellent. They sounded of the time too, lyrics were great, but the songs were also unchallenging as music: generic stage musical for the most part. It needed the addition of a couple of distinctive and catchier, more melodic songs. They sound right for Joan Littlewood perhaps. This might be personal taste but I expect an earworm to play in my dreams after seeing a musical, and I didn’t get one. However, they also avoided the ploy of pushing your strongest tune in twice. An error!
****
SMOKING
They got over the issue of portraying a chain smoker. Clare Burt was continually fiddling with a roll-up, but only lit it and produced 2 seconds of smoke once.
“The Mother of Modern Theatre” – Joan Littlewood’s statue outside The Theatre Royal, Stratford East. It was unveiled by Dame Barbara Windsor and Murray Melvin in 2015. Sir Ian McKellan was with them.
WHAT THE CRITICS SAID
I saw it 30th June. It started 22nd June, but Press Night is 3rd July. Review written before press reviews. I don’t understand why press nights are getting later. They only have a six week run, so I’d’ve thought press night at the end of the first week was right, say Friday 29th. These major companies are so well-rehearsed, it ran perfectly smoothly, and the programme was exact on the running time. The theatre wasn’t full either so they should be thinking “get reviews in – sell more tickets!”
LINKS ON THIS BLOG
Most of the cast also appear in the Swan Theatre repertory for 2018, so in The Fantastic Follies of Mrs Rich and in The Duchess of Malfi. Clare Burt and Sophia Nomvete join them for this play only.
JOAN LITTLEWOOD
Sparrows Can’t Sing (FILM) (1963)
SAM KENYON
Vice Versa by Phil Porter, RSC 2017 (music)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, RSC 2016 (music)
ERICA WHYMAN
Romeo & Juliet, RSC 2018
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, RSC 2016 (Bear Pit Company)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, RSC 2016 (Belvoir Players)
Hecuba by Marina Carr, RSC, 2015
SOPHIA NOMVETE
Vice Versa by Phil Porter, RSC 2017
As You Like It, Globe 2013 (Audrey)
Noises Off, Nuffield, 2016 (Brooke Ashton)
LAURA ELSWORTHY
The Fantastic Follies of Mrs Rich RSC 2018
The Hypocrite, RSC 2017
GREG BARNETT
The Fantastic Follies of Mrs Rich RSC 2018
Duchess of Malfi, RSC 2108
Fantastic Mr Fox, Nuffield, 2016
SOLOMON ISRAEL
The Fantastic Follies of Mrs Rich RSC 2018
Duchess of Malfi, RSC 2108
The Tempest, RSC 2012
Twelfth Night, RSC 2012
Comedy of Errors, RSC 2012
SANDY FOSTER
The Fantastic Follies of Mrs Rich RSC 2018
Fantastic Mr Fox, Nuffield, 2016
The Shoemaker’s Holiday, RSC 2015
Peter Viney's Blog 
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