Basil Dean

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 312, 24 March 1928, Page 22

Basil Dean

One of the Finest Producers of the Day PEN PICTURE OF A . FASCINATING PERSONALITY The subject of my article is one of the legendary figures of our time, writes W. R. Titterton, of Basil Dean in an English magazine. Dean is one of the most interesting figures in theatrical life in England to-day. People who have never met him and know all about him tell other people who know nothing about him, though they have often met him, what a devil of a fellow he is. The horns and the tail are not wanting, and the mouth vomits fire. The portrait, I submit,- is somewhat fanciful. T WAS for some years with Dean at the St. Martin’s, and that, when the decease of Reandean interrupted our relations, there is evidence to be had that my opinion of him did not ihange. The St. Martin’s was at that time a remarkable theatre. It was, as every theatre should be, a workshop *of ar-tist-craftsmen. Everybody in the management, everybody in the permanent company, everybody on the

mechanical staff, had the feeling that they were working together with eager enjoyment for an ideal; the staging and acting of a good play as well as it could be acted and played. .Everybody had a sense of responsibility. There was one captain, one inaster-craftsman—the producer, who was also the managing-director—but though he sometimes shouted from the quarter-deck, he never nagged, he never interfered. He employed men who knew their job. and he left them to it. They had their own methods, and were judged by results. Never before or since in a theatre have I found such a feeling of good tellewship. In th€; bar-parlour of a pub in the neighbourhood actors and members of the mechanical staff-met and drank together. After the show on first nights, Basil Dean, Alec Rea, E. P. Clift and the rest of the management met and drank with the staff, from the stage superintendent, electrician, and property master to the ordinary stage-hand. And Dean would slap old Sollis, the night-porter, on the back and call for a verse of his celebrated solo in seven flats: “The Anchor’s Weighed.” The annual Reandean outing, with Dean behaving like a school-boy. was a joy. Now I shall not under-estimate the part which Alec Rea played in this concern. He gave unselfish, unstinted support to all Dean wanted to do. He was always keenly interested, always taking his share in the choosing and casting of plays. Dean owed everything to him except his genius. But there is no doubt that the informing spirit of the St. Martin’s, not only the man who planned and executed the productions, but the man who created and preserved that unique feeling of the ‘‘Joyous Craft,” was Basil Dean. Dean's Rudeness “But he is such a dreadfully rude Well, I have uniformly found that men who are very keen on their job have great capacity for rudeness. But some of them, and among them notably Dean, have an equal capacity for appreciating good work. And I think that most men prefer the two positives to a screen negation. The men who dislike Dean’s rudeness are those who don’t stand up to him a a he wants them to. If he roars at you for what you have done lie wants you to answer him back and say why you have done it. At rehearsals the man is a marvel; he is patience itself. Again end again lie will take a stumbling actor or actress over the ground, allowing for the temperament of the artist, explaining and explaining and explaining what is the author’s idea behind the gesture and the tone, what the character means, until at last, by magic it seems to the observer, he gets a spark of his own magnetic personality into the player. With the great actor he has another and as difficult task—to co-ordinate the player’s epneeption of the character with his own conception of the play. And that he manages with equal si 1 I. Each rehearsal he conducts with an eager enthusiasm which captures the most reluctant. I And, ten t.o one, when these rehearsals are over he conducts other rehearsals at which the actors are not present, but the mechanical; side of the play is developed and perfected. He works his people hard, but he himself works twice as hard, and twice

as long as any of them. For some days before production he hardly allows himself any sleep. Merit as Producer He has had great helpers. Such a man does. George Harris, the stage designer, has been his right-hand man, and their two minds have moved together on the same plane. They are great friends, and Harris is an ironic critic of all that Dean does. His stage-staff at the St. Martin’s, headed by Albert Jones, was the best in London, and he tries to get their services still wherever he goes. When Dean left Drury Lane, Jones, Walter Venn, the electrician, and Tom Morgan, the property master, were all offered permanent posts there; they preferred to follow Dean. As a producer 1 think his prime merit is, what should be the first aim of any producer—integrity-of conception and execution. A Dean show is always an idea. His intention, of course, is to seize the author’s idea, and put that on the stage. His intention is never, as some critics have held, to express Basil Dean. No doubt the “critic as artist” cannot prevent some of his personality entering into the translation. since the dra’matist writes words on paper, and the producer projects a play in three dimensions on a stage. But the production is always Dean’s translation of the author’s idea and it is always remarkable for its integrity. Taking the thing in detail, you find that his cast acts as one man. You find that the groupings are significant that the changing of position, the gestures, the tones of the actors have a definite rhythm running through the play, like the rhythm of a Russian ballet. You find a similar significance in the scenery, the furniture, and the dresses. Each thing has its idea, which goes to build up the idea of the play moving rhythmically. to its denouement. As for his film version of “The Constant Nymph,” at the time of writing it has not been seen. I hate films, but I shall go to see that one. Sutton Vane’s “Regatta,” which has been successfully tried out at Blackpool, Portsmouth and Southend, and is now in London, is a society play of today. The scene is the deck of a dahabieh on the upper reaches of the Nile. The theme, apart from a strong love interest, is the conflict of feeling between the temperaments of East and West. The cast includes Nora Swinburne, C. M. Hallard, George Relph and Henry de Bray.

The J. C. Williamson Comedy Company playing the “Cuckoo in the Nest,” “Rookery Nook” and “Thark,” three of Ben Travers’s most amusing comedies, will open the New Zealand season at Wellington Opera House on April 7, the season extending to April 21. This is a particularly capable company, and its Australian season has been very successful. It is headed by the noted London artists, Hastings Lynn, Helene Symon, Cyril Vernpn, Vera Gerald, Minnie Reyner and includes many others who have established their reputations op the London stage. * * * “Thark,” the new play by Ben Travers, which a J. C. Williamson's English comedy company will produce at the Opera House. Wellington, for the first time in New Zealand on April 7, is an unusualAype of comedy. It contains thrills and surprises as well as humorous situations. In London, where it ran for over a year at the Aldwych Theatre, it was described as a “mystery comedy.” Part of the action takes place in a house which is supposed to be haunted, and where a "ghost” walks. The characters in the play get themselves involved in all kinds of queer complications, and the action of the story, which has %i delightful love interest, is punctuated by screams of laughter.

The Fuller musical comedies, “Archie,” “Sunny” and “Mercenary Mary,” will most probably open in Wellington at Easter instead of in Auckland. Elsie Prince and Jimmy Codden will play the leads. * * * The next Leon Gordon play in Sydney—at present in rehearsal —will be ihu London melodramatic success, “The Crooked Billet,” written by Dion Titheradge, son of George Titheradge. But it will be som» weeks before* it is seen, due to the continued good business that is being registered by “The Trial of Alary Dugan.” * * * Beautifully effected—within a few moments, in view of the audience — is the change in “The Girl Friend” from an evening before to the morning alter. Somehow the spectator feels that there really has been that lapse of time—a unique triumph in stagecraft that has to be* credited to the resourceful and accomplished producer, Frederick Blackman.