Theatre Museum archive

The old Theatre Museum archive, now at the V&A (formerly at Blythe House), looks likely to be a casualty of the museum’s need to cut expenditure. Its loss would be a devastating blow to any archival historical research into British theatre. A petition has been sent up by SIBMAS (the International Association of Libraries, Museums, Archives and Documentation Centres of the Performing Arts) asking senior management of the V&A to reconsider the position of the Theatre & Performance Department before they rush to close the archives and library and make responsible staff redundant.  For further information and to sign the petition, click here: https://www.change.org/p/tristram-hunt-director-v-a-performing-art-heritage

All On Her Own by Terence Rattigan starring Janie Dee to stream from 16 February 2021

Jack Maple & Brian Zeilinger-Goode for MZG Theatre Productions will produce a brand new digital production of Terence Rattigan’s one-woman play, All On Her Own, starring award-winning actress Janie Dee and directed by Alastair Knights, with Jack McCann as assistant director and original music by Lindsey Miller. The show will be available to stream for eight performances only via stream.theatre from 16 to 21 February 2021. More information about the production is available at stream.theatre or the direct link www.allonherown.com

Live Online Play Reading – Heart to Heart

Live Online Play Reading – Heart to Heart by Terence Rattigan Wednesday 20 January 2021 at 7pm via Zoom

In the absence of any normal events for the Society – for reasons we know only too well! – and by arrangement with Alan Brodie Representation the Society is presenting a live online reading of a lesser-known play by Terence Rattigan and we hope members will wish to ‘attend’ the reading.  Please see here Heart to Heart flyer for further details of how to attend via Zoom.

Cinema Museum

A message from the Cinema Museum:  Pretty much all the Gov COVID-emergency funding to support closed arts organisations has been distributed and The Cinema Museum didn’t qualify to apply for any of it – there was always just one box we couldn’t tick. So we need to raise the money to look after the buildings and pay all the bills, with no income streams for a year and no Gov funding.  So, we have set up a Crowdfunder with Toby Jones and Rory Kinnear to raise £60,000 and we have raised over £45,000 from over 1000 people so far – which is great, but we need a new big push to get to the finish line. Please consider donating and encouraging others to donate – preferably both!  £1 is just fine. Here is the link: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/reopen-and-reimagine-the-cinema-museum

AGM 2020

The 2020 Annual General Meeting of the Terence Rattigan Society was held on Monday, 23 November 2020 at 6.30pm.  As we were still not able to meet in person, the AGM was held via Zoom.

French Without Tears

French Without Tears – LAMDA

28 members of the Society attended the matinee performance (2.15pm) of ‘French Without Tears’ on Tuesday, 11^th February 2020. The performance was by students of London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art (LAMDA) and was the third production of a Rattigan play which has been sponsored by The Terence Rattigan Society’s Harold & Pegs French Award.

The Rattigan Version

The latest issue of the Society’s newsletter, The Rattigan Version, has been mailed to members and will be available on the members section of the website shortly.

Barbara Longford

Barbara Longford (above), the founder and Chairman of the Rattigan Society since 2011.  Barbara stepped down as Chairman at the recent AGM – read her Chairman’s Report which includes highlights of Society events since 2011 here  Chairman’s report – AGM

AGM

The Society’s AGM, play reading and buffet lunch was held on Saturday, 30th November 2019 at Doggetts Coat and Badge in London.

The AGM was the Society’s opportunity to thank Barbara Longford who stepped down as Chairman and celebrate the enormous amount of work, energy and dedication she has given to the Society.  She founded the Society in 2011 and since then has been planning and arranging most of the events over the past eight years.  Barbara reported on the highlights of the many exciting events that have taken place since the Society’s inception.

The play read was Wrong Move by Peter Briffa, directed by Michael Gaunt and performed by Giles Cole and Martin Amherst Lock.   Wrong Move was submitted for The TRS Award and was considered to be outstanding by our readers. It involves a chess-master, Temple, who is annoyed at what he sees as an unfair portrait in a new novel and so entices the author, Ogden, to a basement where he confines him with release only possible if he wins a game of chess. Through interminable games the relationship between the two is explored.  We were pleased that Peter Briffa was able to join us for the reading and lunch.

British Library – September 2019

Two events were held at the British Library on Tuesday 17th September.  Both events were hosted by Society member Professor Dan Rebellato.

At the first event called ‘Show and Tell’ Professor Rebellato and a British Library Curator enabled Society members to see and handle some of the early drafts of Rattigan’s most famous plays, letters, cuttings files and more.

At the second event called ‘Craftsman at Work!  Secrets from the Rattigan Archive‘ Professor Rebellato, who has worked in the Rattigan Archive for over twenty years, gave an illustrated lecture with a glimpse into what the Archive can tell us about Rattigan’s process, his craft and his theatre.