From NZBS Drama to Stardom at St. Trinian's

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 791, 17 September 1954, Page 8

From NZBS Drama to Stardom at St. Trinian's

Om tee de ae a oe eee VIVIENNE "MARTIN, one-time member of the NZBS Productions Department staff, has won an important film role-playing opposite Alistair Sim and Joyce Grenfell-as one of Ronald Searle’s hair-raising schoolgirls

ce AND up the girl who burnt down the East Wing last night." Thus Ronald Searle’s infamous school for girls first cast its shadow across a troubled world. The institution grew and prospered. In the pages of Lilliput thousands watched the unnatural conflict between the school’s hatchet-faced mistresses and their monstrous pupils. The girls were seen after lynching one of the teachers ("Well, that’s O.K.-Now for old Stinks!") gathering poisonous mushrooms ("Chuck those out-they’re harmless"), and occasionally in a romantic interlude with- one of the local lads (‘Life will be empty without you, Drusilla.") The teachers were seen in some prepared positions: reading a note attached to a large bomb ("It says, ‘Apply match and stand close’"), or showing a visitor round the college and meeting one of the dear girls sharpening a machéte ("This is our head girl."). But, @ll nightmares come to an end, Searle terminated his the day three schoolgifls in Scotland actually did attempt to burn down their school. He caused St. Trinian’s to disappear in a mushroom cloud. The girls had got hold of sOme top-secret atomic information. The poet C. Day Lewis marked the occasion with a special dirge: Now poison ivy twines the dorrh where casks ‘Were broached and music mistresses were While = the sports ground where the pupils play. The a dG harmless adder basks. This, however, was-not quite the end of historic St. Trinian’s. It has recently found its way on to film, under the apt title, The Belles of St. Trinian’s. With Alistair Sim in the dual role of Miss Fritton, headmistress, and Clarence, her bookmaker brother, it.should be worth seeing. Joyce Grenfell, who played Miss Gossage ("Calf me Sausage") in The

Happiest Days of Your Life, appears as sports mistress. j Among the "Belles" themselves, one of the most prominent is the young New Zealand actress Vivienne Martin, formerly of the NZBS Productions staff. As Arabella, she is one of three sixthformers who smoke, swig gin, and try to look like Marilyn Monroe. In a re-. cent letter she describes them as: "Arabella, who is beautiful on the outside and wicked,on the inside; Lucretia, who is a straight gangster type, and Gladys, who just trails around after the other two." At first, she says, it was difficult to put a character to the incredible lines she was given. "For instance, the first line for Arabella was, ‘Now, we've got it all laid on the line. Amanda takes Bert to the flicks, then she swings it on him.’" The character came, however, as she was being tested for the part: "The set was a teacher’s office with two desks and a swivel chair. The producer, Frank Launder. came up and said, ‘We'll just try’ it for words,’ the prop man gave me a cigarette and lit it-lI still didn’t know how to act this part-then Frank Launder said, ‘Come in saying the first lines, pick up the gin bottle, take it to the desk and sit in the swivel chair.’ Then just as I turned to go out the door, he added¥ ‘Wiggle your hips slightly." That did it! I had my character!" ‘ Before leaving New Zealand, Miss Martin took part in various amateur productions in Wellington, among them The Government Inspector and The Glass Menagerie. In 1950. she. was awarded a Government bursary for studies at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. On leaving the Academy she found herself, like many another, unable to obtain work. "There seem to

be thousands like that in London," \she says. "If you buy a yard of ribbon or a cup of coffee you're likely to be beautifully served by someone just out of drama school." Miss Martin broke the deadlock by hitch-hiking to Oldham to apply for an advertised job as assistant stage-manager. She got it; she says,

largely because -:the director — an English-man-was shocked at her "unorthodox" method of travel. At Oldham, she worked her way up from stage managing to the lead part. Later, back in London, ‘she acted as stooge. and understudy for. Hermione Baddeley in the revue At the Lyric, at Hammersmith’s Lyric Theatre. (Miss Baddeley is, incidentally, the geography mistress, Miss Drownder, in The Belles of St. Trinian’s). In addition to these engagements, Miss Martin has taken parts in two other films, has appeared in a television revue show. with Benny. Hill, and has accepted the offer of a place on.the bill at the Players’ Theatre. During the filming of The Belles she also found time to. edit "The Spring Number of the St. Trinian’s Magazine." In her editorial, Editor Arabella describes some of the

goings-on:. "The hockey match against Bilston came off as expected. Creepy Crawley, our games mistress, who we discovered is really a policewoman ‘in disguise, was surprised to find that our goal posts were smaller than the opponents’, and that we ensured getting the right one with a double-headed penny. She was even more surprised when, as referee, she was knocked out before the game began and had to join the other stretcher cases in the tent." The editorial conclud with the remark: "We have learnit ‘all there is to this film lark, and I don’t think they have missed much of the equipment we filched. . ." The magazine also contains a "Justification of St. Trinian’s," by the headmistress, Mildred Fritton, and some fascinating fashion notes: "With your beach-wear this year knot a yard of thick rope carelessly round your neck-your friends may find it useful." Be it as editor, film

actress, straight player or variety artist, Vivienne Martin seems to be making her mark in Britain. In Wellington we asked her mother, Mrs. Nada Martin, herself a theatrical producer, if she could explain how it happened. "Well," she said, "when Vivienne was at school she always-hankered ‘after the stage. And once her mind was made up nothing could stop. her."