Beggar's Opera

Here's some more from the archive.  In 1993 we toured Germany with a production of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera. The tour was funded by the British Council and included  dates in Jena and Rostok in the recently re-unified East.  Our local paper, the Journal, asked us to keep a diary of the tour. Here's an extract:

Wednesday: En route to Rostock. We have crossed the old East-West border and are travelling along what used to be the "land corridor" to West Berlin. We are surprised how many concrete border fences and machine gun posts remain. Pass a huge convoy of army lorries. Museum pieces. With equipment like this we wonder how the "Reds" can ever have been a threat.

Thursday: Rostok in the ex-GDR. There's a thunder storm outside and the theatre is an ancient, dilapidated building with crumbling plaster on the walls and water pouring in through one of the light fittings. Yet it is equipped with a computerised lighting system.

Rostock Theatre with member of the cast wondering if he's in the right place

Rostock Theatre entrance

It's fascinating to see what happens when capitalism is poured onto an old and crumbling "Socialist" state. You sense a whole nation is trying to catch up by grabbing material things. The streets are blocked with BMW's, bought with interest-free loans, sitting nose to tail with the ubiquitous beige "Trabbies".
Our host used to be a scene painter for the theatre. Since reunification she has been forced to choose between retirement or redundancy. Her rent has gone up 10-fold and her flat is now owned by a West German. "We don't know where it will end," she told us. "We were promised everything by those in the West. Now millions of us have nothing."

A restored house in Rostok

The contrast between West and East in the early 90's was marked.  Cities like Jena and Rostock were huge building sites and the routes to them were characterised by autobahns which quite literally ended where the old borders used to be, at which point they turned into pot-holed single lane roads. Another feature was that there were brand new car dealership showrooms and gleaming petrol stations on the outskirts of the villages and towns along the way.  These monuments to New Money all had one pump reserved for 2-stroke fuel for the "trabbies" that queued alongside the BMW's and the Mercs .

Following the heady days of re-unification, by the early 1990's, attitudes were quite polarised.  It was common to hear a lot about the sacrifices that those in the West felt they were making to accommodate the weak economy of the East and the effects that a "socialist" regime had had on creating a culture of dependency and a lack of entrepreneurial spirit. It was equally common, and a good deal more affecting, to hear those in the East talking about how all the physical and structural improvements taking place would create returns for the rich westerners who had money to invest.
It's 16 years since we toured in Germany.  We did it three times with an adaptation of Laurence Sterne's A Sentimental Journey in 1991, the Beggar's opera in 1993 and finally with Dr Faustus in 1995.  We performed in Kiel, Mannheim, Heidelberg, Trier, Aachen, Hanover and Neuss in the west and in Jena and Rostock in the east. Socio-economic and cultural differences apart, a common thread was the unbridled enthusiasm for theatre (and English-speaking theatre at that). It was the best of times and we made many friends.
There are hundreds of independent, state and municipal theatres and opera houses in towns and cities throughout the country and theatre seemed to be more of a regular past-time for more of the population than in the UK. I remember there was some talk about this network of theatre and opera houses being under threat as the true cost of re-unification began to bite.
I would love to go back - Rostock had some of the ugliest suburbs we had ever seen and some of the most beautiful rococo architecture in the centre. Many building s looked like they were falling down with decay, and they stood right next to ones that had been perfectly restored.  The city was clearly going to look gorgeous, which would be especially nice for all the rich "incomers" who were going to live in it.
We would love to hear from anyone who has been more recently, particularly if you have performed there, or anywhere in Germany.
In the meantime, here are some photos of our production of John Gay's, The Beggar's opera, which we performed with 6 actors and a musician.

Macheath and the rivals for his affection, Polly Peachum and Lucy Lockit

Polly in love

Lucy and Polly

Peachum

The cast

Peachum, Macheath and Lockit

Peachum and Polly

Macheath, Matt of the Mint & the Gang

Macheath in prison

Dr Faustus - from the archives

I thought it might be fun to marshal some archive material and post bits and pieces from previous productions. I'll start with Dr Faustus which we performed in 1995 - 6.

We toured this production in the North of England (including the Live Theatre in Newcastle and the Georgian Theatre Royal in Richmond, Yorkshire), and then, funded by the British Council, in Germany.  The highlight of the German tour was playing as part of the International Shakespeare Festival in Neuss near Dusseldorf in the Globe Theatre. This was a pre-fabricated building originally designed to be moved about to different Garden Festival sites (remember Michael Hessletine and the controversial English equivalent?) before eventually being "plumbed in" permanently in 1991.

The Globe Theatre, Neuss, Germany

Globe Theatre, Neuss

Dr Faustus at Matfen Hall, Northumberland

Henry Fielding: Historical Register for the Year 1736

We are fairly confident that, apart from our 1990 production, Fielding's satire "The Historical Register for the Year 1736" has not been performed since the introduction of the theatre Licensing Act of 1737. If we're right then the photographs in this post are unique. It's a shame that they're not top quality, but I'm afraid they're the best we have.

The Historical Register was the second play produced by HC Productions.  I don't think there are many plays of the early 18th Century that leap off the page for a contemporary audience, but there was something about this one that struck a chord with the style of theatre we wanted to develop. There is a high energy, quick fire anarchy about the piece that gives the impression of disorganised spontaneity, disguising the tight structure that frames it.  This is re-enforced by the play-within-a-play in which the real audience watches the "Author" interpret a rehearsal of his play to a cynical critic and a member of the ruling class.

In the 1730's Fielding was playing with fire. The Historical Register represents the thrilling but unstable mix of satirical attacks on the government, highly successful commercial theatre and an establishment with the power (and the will) to impose censorship. It is a cocktail that energises the piece - it is like an animated Hogarth cartoon; multi-layered, grotesque, funny and sure to hit its targets. It was an environment in which it was only a matter of time before the government lost patience and put a stop to it.  The particular qualities that we took from the play, and have developed in our subsequent productions, are its pace, its humour, its economy (it's short and lean) and its edginess (in the sense of it being a "rehearsal" which plays with the audience's expectation that it might go wrong).

HC Productions 1990 production of Heny Fielding's The Historical Register for the Year 1736 at Kirk Hammerton Hall, Yorkshire

We don't enjoy the commercial success of Fielding's brief golden period in the theatre and nor do we expect to upset the government; but we have had a good deal of fun borrowing from him and being influenced by him.

Historical Register

Welcome to the Great Mogul's Company of Comedians

In 1990 we performed Fielding’s Historical Register – as far as we know, for the first time since it was banned in 1737 (we would be delighted to be proved wrong if anyone can furnish us with evidence of other productions). The play was billed as “HC Productions presents the Great Mogul’s Company in Henry Fielding’s Historical Register for the year 1736”. It was a right rollicking romp and it was difficult to persuade audiences that we hadn’t changed Fielding’s script, such was the contemporary nature of its subject matter (war in the desert, corrupt politicians, celebrities courting fame) and its treatment of it -  a play structured as a review with short, sharp sketches, some knockabout comedy and some songs .  The script is only 45 minutes long so the “intervals” provided the perfect vehicle for additional material that reflected the comedic and musical skills of individual performers. We assembled a relatively large team (13), struggled to get funding and, consequently, performed it only 3 times – we have wanted to revive it ever since. Who knows, perhaps we will one day.  We were a relatively new company at the time and have since honed the house style in a dozen or so  subsequent productions that have been built around 2 – 6 actors and 2 musicians.  In the meantime, our intention is to rekindle the spirit of the Great Mogul by generating some heat and light via this blog. Future subjects will include: the economics of theatre and development of new business models;  the role of social enterprise;  Laurence Sterne; the 18^th Century “Afterpiece” and any other subjects that emerge along the way.