Crescent Theatre Blog

In my last blog everything about Mary Stuart was still theoretical; I was editing the script, thinking about the staging and the characters were just voices in my head. Now the script is printed and bound, the set design has been approved at pre-production and the cast have been rehearsing for the last three weeks.

My feeling from the start, based on my own shameful ignorance of Tudor history, was that an hour and a half of 16th century politics would be a stretch for an audience if they didn’t recognise the contemporary parallels. But now the characters are inhabited by real, live actors the politics have become secondary to their personal stories.

Consequently I now feel I can chuck out some of my more egregious directorly interventions (but not the orange boilersuit – that stays!) and concentrate on telling the story. I spend rehearsals telling the actors to try everything in rehearsal and then get rid of what they don’t need and I’m in the process of taking my own advice.

Andrew Cowie (director)

After months of Saturday morning rehearsals, the cast and crew of the Crescent’s Youth Theatre production of ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD finally moved into the Ron Barber Studio this weekend.

We now have 10 days of frantic preparation ahead before the big opening night next week.

It’s been a real pleasure working with everyone on what is set to be a great show. Good luck!

Robert F. Ball

The very first play produced by The Municipal Players in 1924 was ‘Spreading the News’ by Lady Gregory. We’re marking the group’s 85^th anniversary (they later renamed as The Crescent Theatre) by producing the 1924 play The Vortex and today (Tuesday, 18 August) we continued spreading the news of our production by erecting a large advertising banner on the outside of the theatre.

There are some other events to mark the anniversary too (including productions of The Proposal and Juno and the Paycock) – see the main website for full details.

In Act II of The Vortex, Nicky tells Helen: “I’m gay and witty and handsome.” Of course, gay here is used in its original sense meaning carefree or merry, the sense in which gay means homosexual is much more modern. However, along with the cast, I’ve had to ask the question is Nicky gay in the modern meaning of the word? Is this a very subtle sub text in the play, is this something that Mr Coward could hint at but dared not make too obvious in the prevailing 1924 climate of hostility and illegality? The evidence seems to suggest it is; the author was, after all, gay and authors tend to write about their own experiences or issues that concern them directly.

There is more evidence of Nicky’s homosexuality in the text. In Act III Nicky says, “I’ve grown up all wrong.” And in Act II Bunty, Nicky’s fiancé, tells him, “You’re not in love with me, really – you couldn’t be.” All very subtle and open to interpretation. But then, in Act III, when Nicky confronts his mother we learn that he feels she has subjugated his father and we have the classic, if now largely discredited, equation of dominant mother + weak father = gay son.

Nicky’s sexual orientation has recently been explored on the professional stage in the Manchester Royal Exchange’s production starring Will Young. Of this production, Nicholas de Jongh of The Evening Standard writes: “It has taken more than 80 years and the performance of Will Young, the gay pop idol who has never acted on stage before, to bring out the full truth about Nicky Lancaster, Noël Coward‘s angry young man in The Vortex … The actors who have played Nicky, from Noël Coward himself in 1924 to Dirk Bogarde and Rupert Everett, have disguised or glossed over this crucial gayness. Not so Will Young.”

And what’s the relevance of this today? Well, as I sat down to write these words news was breaking of an attack on a centre for young gay people in Tel Aviv. This is a centre that offers help and advice to young people coming to terms with their sexuality in a safe environment, free of judgement. Well that’s the idea, clearly it is no longer the case. A desperately sad act of terrorism that only serves to remind us that there are thousands of Nicky’s all over the world in 2009 still struggling with their identity in hostile circumstances.