"Winterset" by Maxwell Anderson - School Dramatic Society Production 1959
Rod Clarke writes that he wonders if any tapes of 'gash' bits of recordings ... have survived. "I'd love to hear again my (and John Pither's) attempts at reproducing a machine gun for Winterset. We enlisted the Cadets and lined up a load of guys with rifles loaded with blanks (shame). The sargeant ran down the back of the line rapping them on the backside with a stick (like a kid along a row of railings) and they fired as they were rapped. The result was TERRIBLE!!!"
Winterset was controversial. It resulted in an unusually critical review in the Gaytonian followed by a defence by the producer, Mr. Turnbull.
The plot of "Winterset" is potentially that of a great play. Mio loves Miriamne, the sister of Garth, an ex-gangster who was involved in the murder for which Mio's father was wrongly executed. The conflict between Mio's feelings for Mariamne and his duty towards his dead father could be the theme of a great play. But "Winterset" is not great; it is dramatically unsatisfactory.
...
...why should the Dramatic Society choose such a play as its 1959 production? Would not the undenied greatness of Shakespeare have been a better choice? The truth is that Shakespeare offers less of a challenge than a play like "Winterset". ... It is to the credit of Mr. Turnbull and his cast that they did give us a performance that was enjoyable and engrossing.
David Drinkwater's performance as Mio was disappointing. He acted with nonchalance, apparently indifferent to the fact that Mio was a man with a "cause". This indifference made his love for Mariamne a very cold love, even colder than Anderson's writing of it. This lack of warmth in Drinkwater's performance was reflected in, and was largely due to, the monotony with which he delivered his words. Never really moving as poetry, the lines of "Winterset" became, in Drinkwater's mouth, merely a dull confusion of words. This actor is clearly not without ability, but he must discipline himself: he must learn vocal variety and he must cease to treat the play with such frigid superciliousness.
Miriamne is not a strong character, and Clive Newton did well to give such a satisfactory picture of her. John Peterson played Garth with a strenth and firmness which made his the outstanding performance of the evening. Here was an actor who entered into the spirit of the character, who was not content with a superficial expression. Convincing also was Norman Biggs as Edras. His senile wisdom was agreeably tempered by an berwildered failure to keep pace with events. His curtain-speech was unsatisfactory, but this fault was the author's, not the actor's. The author is again culpable for the conventional character of Trock. He is painted as a Hollywood gangster, with a pulled-down trilby and no psychology. There is little in the part as it is written, so that Robert Veltman was reduced to giving a caricature, with which his staccatto speech was in harmony. To the Judge, Graham Morris gave the right degree of pathos, but he, too, was lacking in vocal variety.
Despite the weaknesses noted in some of the above performances, the acting had a general competency and vitality that reflect the care and patience of the producer, Mr. Turnbull. The performance would have benefitted dramatically from a greater sense of conflict between two forces. Anderson does not depict this satisfactorily, as we have seen, and Drinkwater let what conflict there was pass by unheeded.
The fine set, produced by Mr. Oliver and his many assistants, facilitated the scene-changes, and harmonised with the realism of the play.
Te production of "Winterset" was the co-operative effort of many masters and many boys. All are to be congratulated for contributing to the admirable production of a play that was different from the usual school productions. They are to be admired for their courage in avoiding the conventional. It is to be hoped that the Dramatic Society will pursue this policy of being unconventional and different. The essence of life is novelty: te conventional produces only ennui.
J. D. Hart
Last year was quietly spent in preparing for the [Dramatic] Society's first "modern" play, "Winterset". The criticism that then broke upon us has by now lost much of its sting, but it underlined the necessity for establishing certain guiding principles of production and it is the consideration of these that inspires these observations.
Few people liked "Winterset". For some the occasional language of the two gangsters was offensive; others thought the theme and setting sordid, the pace slow and the diction artificial....
The objections to the construction and style of the play were more relevant, and here a few perceptive critics were able to distinguish between the play as literature and as a production. On of our saddest experiences with "Winterset" was to find the work of months ignored because there was objection to the playwright's style or construction or theme. We are confident that the acting ability of our cast was as high as ever, the sound effects as efficiently managed, the lighting as problematical, the music as carefully chosen and the set as inspired as in any previous production. The set alone received its rightful praise, although more in necessity of having something to say about the production, one felt, than in real appreciation of the artistry involved.
The obvious retort to all this is that if one wants appreciation one should choose a popular play. The democratic fallacy that what is popular is therefore praiseworthy brings us to the heart of the matter. The school producer often finds himself obliged to select a play that will not be popular and then marvels at the absence of enthusiasm in his audiences. This is not illogical. He does not necessarily aim at amusing his audience; that is the function of T.V. or the cinema or the commercial theatre. But too many assume that it is his also and are stiffly indignant or tight-lipped with reticence when he does not. A school production is an extension of the educational function of the school, an exposition of its capabilities; it is much more than the strutting of a few word-perfect individuals upon the stage, though this may be all that is apparent to some.
Hence the play must be one that sets a challenge, and because plays that combine substance with a minimum of female leads are few, most of us concentrate on Shakespeare or Shaw, the former in his more innocuous moods (the production of "Othello" by Mr. Robertson next March will be a real departure from the whimsically comic and the earnestly historic Shakespeare). If we are obliged to be more "modern" then we must look to America, Germany or France for plays that deserve serious attention. "Winterset" was the answer last March: modernity, two female parts, scope for many "extras", a serious theme, a challenge for the sound-effects department, the electricians and the designer. None was more surprised than the cast at the reception of the play as a "gangster play", "a product of the gutter", a "blasphemy". It found nothing exceptional in the realism and even found some of it sentimental. One of the school producer's greatest rewards is the close contact with the mind and spirit of youth that his work makes possible.
Despite everything, however, the work of production in itself was worthwhile. With so talented an Art Department behind him, so practical and patient a stage-manager, and so fanatical and determined a set of electricians and sound-effects men, no producer should have had much excuse for despondency. Whether or not it is noble in the mind to suffer the buffets of criticism, it was certainly exhilarating t have had the support of such colleagues and pupils as these.
T. S. Turnbull
Source: Gaytonian 1959.