The Shakespeare Code

 A Trixie Special

 

One of the late Margaret Thatcher’s most famous statements was:

U turn if you want to. The Lady’s not for turning……

As Brothers and Sisters of The Shakespeare Code well know, The Lady’s Not for Burning is the title of a play by Christopher Fry – a play which our Chief Agent, Stewart Trotter, directed when he was Artistic Director of  The Northcott Theatre in Exeter….

 

But of greater interest is the fact that the man who wrote Thatcher’s speeches, Sir Ronald  Millar……

 

……was a playwright himself…….

……one of whose shows, Robert and Elizabeth…

 …….a preposterous musical version about the love affair between Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett……

…….Stewart had directed at the prestigious Chichester Festival……

Stewart helped Sir Ronald revise the work over several days at the High Tory Whites Club in St. James…..

……..a club that started off as a coffee and gambling house…….

……..and is now the home of The Conservative Party…..

In the course of  working and eating together, Sir Ronald told Stewart (who is yet to be knighted) the following amazing story……

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When I started out as a writer…..

……I was very left-wing.  But, like everyone else, I became disillusioned with the Labour Party…..

……and especially disillusioned with the shifty Harold Wilson…..

……who only smoked his pipe when he was being photographed

……(he was a closet cigar and brandy man)

One night I got drunk as a guest at Whites……

…….and lambasted the Tory M.P.s……

You’re hopeless you lot! Hopeless! You CANNOT COMMUNICATE!

The following day I got a call from Tory H.Q……

……inviting me to…..

 show them how to do it…..

I was so touched by their modesty that I went to see them……

……and was introduced to Ted Heath…..

Initially I loathed him…..

His first comment was…..

So what’s it to be today?  Care and compassion?

And he rocked with mocking laughter…..

……his shoulders famously shaking…….

But I decided to give it a go and started writing his speeches…..

BUT  NEVER , EVER FOR MONEY…..

That way, I could stay independent….

But Margaret brought Ted down…..

She was the only one who would tell him, to his face, where to get off…..

So people rallied behind her……,

…….even though she wasn’t – in those days at least – a powerful speaker in the Commons.

When she became Leader of the Party I assumed it would be curtains for me…..

Margaret and Ted couldn’t stand one another…..

But I was in my Notting Hill flat one morning when the phone rang….

It was the Deputy Leader, Willie Whitelaw….

What are you doing now Ronnie?

I’m just about to go out….

No you’re not. I’m coming over….

And come he did, with a sheath of papers in his hands…..

Now sit down and read this. It’s Margaret’s first speech to conference tomorrow.

So I sat down and read the whole thing…..

What do you think?’

It’s dreadful! Who wrote it?

She did. Now you’re going to.

But I hardly know her…..

Doesn’t matter….

Does she know you’re here?

No.

But she might not want to do it….

Oh she’ll do it, Ronnie. We’ll see to that….

So I spent the rest of the day at the typewriter………

…….turning myself into Margaret Thatcher…..

…….and turning Margaret Thatcher into me….

Then a taxi called for me. Then a helicopter….

Then by the evening Willie was ushering me into Margaret’s hotel suite…….

She and Denis……

……..were sitting on the sofa.

She clearly had no idea what was about to happen.

Willie told her straight that her speech was no good and that she must deliver mine.

Margaret looked aghast as Willie handed her my speech…..

But she read each page carefully, then handed it to Denis, who read it after her.

When she came to the end she said:

I’ve no idea which one to do…..

You must do Ronnie’s’, said Denis.

And that was that….

I directed her for several hours….

……as though she was an actress in one of my plays…..

Then she went to bed to grab a few hours of sleep….

The next morning I called on her. 

She was wearing a stunning blue dress……

……..and standing up.

She clearly didn’t want to crease the dress by sitting down.

She asked me to sit down and put the speech in my lap……

She had a couple of questions, she said, about delivery.

Then she knelt by my side and pointed to words in the script……

It was one of the most thrilling experiences I have ever had….

The woman had an energy about her that electrified you….

Then she got up, impatient for it all to begin.

I knew it would be a triumph….

She was behaving like a Diva….

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 Stewart has his own Thatcher story to tell……

A couple of years after Robert and Elizabeth I had another brush with the Tory party.

A charming grandee…….

……..whose father had produced Ivor Novello shows, ice-shows, and Ivor Novello on Ice shows…..

……..bought the rights to my rock version of Carmen,  Carmen Latina……

www.carmenlatina.com

………which has just finished a run in Poland…..

………and is now again available for production world-wide.

In the course of trying to set a West End run of the show, he showed me a secret tape……

………..and made me promise I would never reveal the contents……..

……….of Margaret Thatcher rehearsing a speech!

But as she has now passed on, I feel I can lift the embargo……

She had been over to America to see her great pal, Ronald Reagan…..

……….and he had shown her his new toy……

A plastic lectern you could see through…..

……….and so the audience could see you……..

……….onto which a speech could be projected which was visible to the speaker……

……….but invisible to the audience…..

Thatcher was wild to try it out……

And the grandee’s tape was of the technical rehearsal…….

Now ‘technicals’, as they are called in the theatre, are calculated to bring out the worst in even the most pleasant of performers….

The attention is on machines and other people rather than you……

And there are long, long waits…..

Thatcher stood behind the magic lantern……

And waited and waited and waited.

Not for a second did she show any annoyance…….

And spoke to the technicians throughout with utter courtesy and utter respect……

So her staff adored her…….

And so did Ronnie…….

The one time I went to his very dusty flat…….

(he had clearly taken to heart Quentin Crisps’s advice that you should never sweep your floors)

…….I saw a bottle of champagne in pride of place……….

……..unopened, and as dusty as everything else……

The reason?

Propped up against it was a card with a hand-written message……

From Margaret…..

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‘Bye now…..

© Stewart Trotter and Trixie the Cat, 12th April, 2013