Orson Welles, Vol I by Simon Callow

Author:Simon Callow
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781446483565
Publisher: Vintage

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Shoemaker’s Holiday/Heartbreak House

THE ARTISTIC directors’ reckless confidence transmitted itself to every level of the theatre. ‘George Zorn (the box office manager) grew resigned to the fact that he was working for a pair of madmen and made the best of it,’1 wrote Houseman. ‘In fact, this air of dedicated insanity came to permeate the entire organisation: from the stage to the boiler room morale was ridiculously high during those first few months of our operation.’ In addition to rehearsals for The Shoemaker’s Holiday, they created plans for their experimental Studio/Youth Theatre, ‘THE STUDIO OF THE MERCURY THEATRE. PURPOSE: To establish a permanent apprentice group to the Mercury Theatre. ORGANISATION: To furnish the theatre with new talent … to be composed of all the non-equity extras appearing in Mercury Theatre repertory. FEES: $150 for 6 months. SPONSORS: Antoinette Perry, Gertrude Lawrence, Katharine Cornell.’ Essentially, this was the framework for the Worklight Theatre described in their earliest announcements. Chubby Sherman was made head of the Acting Bureau, and a new play, David Howard’s Dear Abigail, announced as first offering. This enlightened scheme existed more on paper than in reality. There were fitful rehearsals resulting in an apprentice production of Julius Caesar; work was done on Lope de Vega’s The Well, and Abraham and Isaac from the York Mystery Circle. In its lack of proper training, organisation, or structure, and its exaction of fees for what was in effect extra work, it is strikingly reminiscent of the ‘training course’ accompanying the Woodstock Festival of three years earlier: a ruse, in fact. But even as a proposal, it was symptomatic of the brave new world of theatre that Houseman and Welles were conjuring up.

The one official production of the Worklight Theatre (‘which is designed to give auditions to unusual pieces that are homeless’) was a revival of The Cradle Will Rock, the extraordinary commercial potential of which, in the wake of its sensational debut, had never been adequately tapped. (The press office made the most of this history, promoting it as THE SHOW THAT MADE THE FRONT PAGES.) Initially, after two Worklight Theatre performances, the show was scheduled for four Sunday performances (part of the new seven-day policy) starting on 5 December; but it proved to have more life in it than that, transferring on 3 January to the Windsor Theatre for a run of 108 performances (‘Suppressed by the government! Acclaimed by the critics! Demanded by the Public! Now on Broadway!’ screamed the handbills). This was, of course, the first time that the piece had been formally reviewed; it was greeted with nearly unanimous enthusiasm. ‘It is the best thing militant labor has put into a theatre yet,’2 according to Brooks Atkinson of the Times. Richard Watts Junior, another conservative critic, was as enthused: ‘A savagely humorous social cartoon that hits hard and sardonically and must be set down as one of the most interesting dramatic events of the season.’3

In fact, the show was a rather different one from the astonishing improvised evenings at the Venice Theatre the previous year.

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