The Shakespeare Code

A PRESS ROUND-UP FROM YOUR RESIDENT NEWS-HOUND………

TRIXIE THE CAT

Brothers and Sisters of The Shakespeare Code……

TALES FROM THE PALACE THEATRE 1912-2012……..

……..was published on 1st November…….

TO ECSTATIC REVIEWS!!!

THE STAGE newspaper…..

…..which has been on the streets since 1880……

…..and is still run by the Founders’s great grand-daughter….

…..has always had ONE GOLDEN RULE…….

IT NEVER PUBLISHES BOOK REVIEWS….

Quite right!

This saves……

 the weekly for the entertainment industry

…..from drowning in Celebrity…….

 GOSSFESS!!!

[‘GOSSFESS’ is Trixie Slanguage for ‘Gossip plus Confession’: © Trixie the Cat, 2012]

However, when  TALES FROM THE PALACE came along…….

….edited by Code Chief Agent, Stewart Trotter, F.S.C…..

…….and co-authored by Charles Sharman-Cox, F.S.C….

and Rachel On Brick Lane Lichtenstein….

THE STAGE newspaper took one look at it……

…..and simply…….

TORE UP THE RULE-BOOK!!!

It has devoted a WHOLE PAGE in its 1st November edition to what amounts to a FULL FEATURE on the book…..

……penned by DOYEN critic….

…….RICHARD ANTHONY BAKER…..

……who writes……

Over the years many people predicted the theatre [The Palace] would never last this long. There have been repeated financial crises – indeed, since 1969, The Palace has gone dark four times. But on each occasion, local theatregoers rallied round to ensure that it lived for another day.

Helen Mirren…..

…….who was educated in Westcliff, recognises this fighting spirit. In the foreword of A SUMPTUOUS NEW BOOK she writes…..

‘The theatre people and townspeople of this area love their grand old lady…….

…….and through their efforts, determination and sheer bloody-mindedness, brought her back to life.’

Mr. Baker then takes us expertly through The Theatre’s history…..

…..how it was first designed as an Opera House……

…..can you imagine it?…….

……..in Westcliff-on-Sea…..

……..ESSEX…….

AN OPERA HOUSE????

It opened, far more sensibly, as a Temperance Variety Theatre and Cinema ……

…..showing early silent movies in the interest of ‘Science’….

Mr. Baker describes The Theatre’s notorious steep-rake…..

……and the stars who attempted to negotiate it…….

…….including Albert Chevalier…..

……who reduced the audience to tears with his rendering of My Old Dutch…..

……and the saintly Dame Sybil Thorndike…..

Mr. Baker describes how the beautiful, elusive, actress-cum-entrpreneur, Gertude Mouillot …..

…gave The PalaceTheatre as a gift to the poeple of Southend-on-Sea during the Second World War……..

…….. on the condition that it was NEVER SOLD.

The great Dora Bryan……

……..was, along with Harold Pinter’s first wife, Vivien Merchant, one of the first performers to be presented at the Palace by its new manager, Harry Hanson.

Mr. Baker continues…..

Tales from The Palace Theatre is an apt title for the book, since, besides being a thorough-going, intensely researched history, it includes a feast of anecdotes.

Between 1965 and 1969, the stories flow endlessly. In those years, The Theatre was run by Alexander Bridge……

…..a talented fantasist who believed he was the re-incarnation of Novello. He frequently  starred his mother, Eileen Farrow…….……..

…..in his productions, billing her as one of Novello’s former leading ladies. She was nothing of the sort. Her only previous theatrical experience was with amateurs and her quaint, old-fashioned style delighted the chorus boys, who each night crowded in the wings to watch her.

One was the late Patrick Fyffe, who imitated her as Hilda Bracket of the peerless Hinge and Bracket…..

Bridge’s handsome leading man, Paul Greenhalgh……

……provided the book’s authors with some of its most hilarious passages…..

Note: If you would like to read extracts from ‘Paul’s Tale’, please click: HERE.

Mr. Baker goes on to describe how Bridge was succeeded by ‘the master farceur, Ray Cooney’ , Leslie Lawton (who cast Alfred Marks in John Osborne’s The Entertainer) then Chris Dunham who employed a young Irish actor, Pierce Brosnan……

………..who was to go on to play the lead in FOUR James Bond films……

Mr. Baker concludes:

Then of course there is the obligatory theatre ghost. But that is another story……

 As if this review wasn’t enough, there was another WONDERFUL piece from Features Editor of The Echo, the highly-repected wordsmith, TOM KING.

He writes:

Like the 100-year-old Palace Theatre itself, the book which celebrates its Centenary has been built to last.

Months of research, dozens of interviews, three distinguished authors (plus guest author Dame Helen Mirren), the best quality paper and board money money can buy, and the sort of devotion money can’t buy, have gone into it.

‘We don’t imagine’, says co-author Charles Sharman-Cox ‘any other regional theatre across the country has a book to match this one.’

Initial research was placed in the hands of Rachel Lichtenstein, whose book on the history of Hatton Garden, Diamond  Street, has just been published.

It quickly became apparent The Palace story was about a lot more than just facts and dates. ‘One overwhelming thing emerged as the work went on’ says Charles. ‘The Palace story is a people story. So many people have loved it. We decided the story had to be told through their eyes and voices.’

One person who shares that love is co-author Stewart Trotter.

As a stage director, Stewart worked with Sir Peter Hall……..

……. and was responsible for one of the first plays staged at The Cottesloe Theatre. He started English Touring Opera and inspired a scene in Monty Python among other achievements…

‘Theatrically speaking,’ says Charles, Stewart and I go back to Southend High School. We both worked on a production of King Lear.

Back then the pair found a second home in The Palace Theatre. Their love of the place and a sense of gratitude remains undiluted. It is fair to say that debt was repaid through the writing of the book.

‘Stewart mostly looked after the writing . I concentrated on the interviews,’ Charles said.

The launch sees The Palace  in perhaps the finest fettle it has ever been in all its 100 years. The book is full of fond reminiscence of The Palace Past, but ends in a different tense…..

The final interview is with Ellen McPhillips, director of HQ Theatres…….

She concludes: ‘There is no shadow over The Palace’s future at all.’

At which point, job done, the authors sign off their history. They do so conventionally with the words: ‘The End’.

Then they add ‘And a new beginning’.

●

Tales from The Palace Theatre is published by Guild. It costs £25.99 , including postage and packing in Great Britain, and can be obtained either by e-mailing the lovely LISA PEACOCK at thebookinn@talktalkbusiness.net

…..or by sending a cheque made payable to The Place Theatre Club to the equally lovely  GEORGIE PERKINS, House Manager, The Palace Theatre, 430, London Road, Southend-on-Sea, Essex SSO 9LA.

Tell them that another lovely Essex Girl sent you……

Trixie the Cat!

‘Bye, now…..

Don’t forget – all proceeds will go The Palace Theatre Club for the upkeep of ‘The Grand Old Lady’….