The Plays: Year-by-Year (1965)

This page contains productions details for all plays produced by Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough, during 1965. All information on this page has been researched and compiled by Simon Murgatroyd M.A. from programmes, brochures and newspaper articles.

Summer 1965

All plays were performed in-the-round in the Concert Room at Scarborough Library. The season ran from 4 June to early September 1965.

Granite

Author:
New Play:

First performance:
Opening night:
Final performance:

Director:
Lighting:
Clemence Dane
No

5 July 1965
5 July 1965
28 July 1965

George Taylor
Clive Goodhead
Character
Jordan Morris
Judith, his wife
Prosper, his half-brother
Penny Holt
A Nameless Man
A Clergyman
Actor
Peter King
Pamela Craig
Terence Wilton
Christine Robinson
Peter Ellis Jones
George Taylor

Meet My Father (later retitled: Relatively Speaking)

Author:
New Play:

First performance:
Opening night:
Final performance:

Director:
Lighting:
Alan Ayckbourn
Yes

8 July 1965
8 July 1965
11 August 1965

Stephen Joseph
Clive Goodhead
Character
Greg
Gina
Philip
Sheila
Actor
Peter King
Joanne Tope
David Jarrett
Catherine Naish
Note: When the play premiered at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, it was called Meet My Father. When the West End producer, Peter Bridge, optioned it for London, he requested a new title leading to its London premiere as Relatively Speaking.

March of Time

Author:
New Play:

First performance:
Opening night:
Final performance:

Director:
Lighting:
Denys Ives
Yes

15 July 1965
15 July 1965
21 July 1965

Graham Woodruff
Clive Goodhead
Character
David
Mr Mansfield
Mrs Mansfield
Judy
Manager
Peggy
Miss Grimshaw
Prostitute
Hilda
Waitress
Sally
Mrs Snell
Corinne
Another Manager
Salvationist
Ronald
Estate Agent
Actor
David Jarrett
Terence Wilton
Catherine Naish
Christine Robinson
Peter Ellis Jones
Christine Robinson
Joanna Tope
Catherine Naish
Pamela Craig
Joanna Tope
Christine Robinson
Catherine Naish
Pamela Craig
Peter Ellis Jones
Terence Wilton
Peter Ellis Jones
Terence Wilton

Cock & Bull Story

Author:
New Play:

First performance:
Opening night:
Final performance:

Director:
Co-director:
Lighting:
David Campton
Yes

29 July 1965
29 July 1965
8 September 1965

Stephen Joseph
George Taylor
Clive Goodhead
Character
Herbert Cutts
Enid Cutts
Sydney Street
Freda Edgerson
Tad Edgerson
Winnie Cutts
Iris
Butch
Actor
Peter King
Pamela Craig
Terence Wilton
Joanna Tope
David Jarrett
Christine Robinson
Catherine Naish
Peter Ellis Jones

See The Pretty Lights

Author:
New Play:

First performance:
Opening night:
Final performance:
Alan Plater
Yes

12 August 1965
12 August 1965
25 August 1965
Director:
Lighting:

Character
Norman
Enid
Alfred Bradley
Clive Goodhead

Actor
David Jarrett
Pamela Craig
Note: See The Pretty Lights was produced in a triple bill - Out Of Thin Air - with The Governor's Lady and The Day Dumbfounded Got His Pylon.

The Governor's Lady

Author:
New Play:

First performance:
Opening night:
Final performance:

Director:
Lighting:
David Mercer
No

12 August 1965
12 August 1965
25 August 1965

Alfred Bradley
Clive Goodhead
Character
Harriet
Amolo
Charmian
Gilbert
John
Policeman
Actor
Eileen Derbyshire
Peter King
Pamela Craig
Henry Livings
Terence Wilton
Peter Ellis Jones
Note: The Governor's Lady was produced in a triple bill - Out Of Thin Air - with See The Pretty Lights and The Day Dumbfounded Got His Pylon.

The Day Dumbfounded Got His Pylon

Author:
New Play:

First performance:
Opening night:
Final performance:

Director:
Lighting:
Henry Livings
No

12 August 1965
12 August 1965
25 August 1965

Alfred Bradley
Clive Goodhead
Character
Dumbfounded
Mrs Skern
Im
Belch
Op
Inge
Actor
Henry Livings
Eileen Derbyshire
Peter King
Peter Ellis Jones
Pamela Craig
Terence Wilton
Note: The Day Dumbfounded Got His Pylon was produced in a triple bill - Out Of Thin Air - with See The Pretty Lights and The Governor's Lady.

Bitter Harvest

Author:
New Play:

First performance:
Opening night:
Final performance:

Director:
Catherine Turney
No

26 August 1965
26 August 1965
1 September 1965

Graham Woodruff
Character
Lord Byron
Walter Scott
John Cam Hobhouse
Tom Moore
Fletcher
Lady Melbourne
Lady Oxford
Lady Caroline Lamb
Augusta Leigh
Annabella Millbanke
Actor
David Jarrett
Terence Wilton
Peter King
Peter Ellis Jones
George Taylor
Catherine Naish
Joanna Tope
Pamela Craig
Dona Martyn
Christine Robinson

The Play of Mata Hari

Author:
New Play:

First performance:
Opening night:
Final performance:

Director:
Choregraphy:
Mike Stott
Yes

9 September 1965
9 September 1965
18 September 1965

George Taylor
Domy Reiter
Character
Mata Hari
The Narrator
All other roles
Actor
Dona Martyn
David Jarrett
Peter Ellis Jones
Pamela Craig
Peter King
Terence Wilton
Catherine Naish
Christine Robinson
Joanna Tope

1965 Production Notes

○ Meet My Father was the original title for Alan Ayckbourn's Relatively Speaking; the playwright's first major West End hit. The title was altered for the West End production in 1967 as the producer Peter Bridge felt Meet My Father was "too provincial."
○ Meet My Father was the final play to be directed by Stephen Joseph before his death in October 1967. He did live long enough to see his protege enjoy his first West End success with the same play, which set Alan Ayckbourn on the path to take over as Artistic Director of Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre in 1972.
○ Cock & Bull Story was actually set in Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough, where the play was first performed! It is the only play in the history of the company to be specifically set in the company's home - although Screenplay (2014) featured four plays ostensibly set in Scarborough's former Odeon cinema before it became the home of the Stephen Joseph Theatre.
○ See The Pretty Lights - part of the Out of Thin Air triple bill - marked the first premier of a play by the famed northern playwright, Alan Plater, at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough.
○ The Governor's Lady and The Day Dumbfounded Got His Pylon featured a special guest appearance by Eileen Derbyshire - better known as Emily Bishop (nee Nugent) in the long-running British television soap opera Coronation Street. By the time she performed in Scarborough, she had already been in the television show for five years; a rare case of star casting in the company!
○ There is some confusion as to where the world premiere of The Play Of Mata Hari took place. The Victoria Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent (now the New Vic), credits it as a world premiere under the title Mata Hari. However, this production's opening date is listed as 23 November 1965, more than two months subsequent to the production staged at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough, where it was - in all likelihood - actually premiered.
○ The Play of Mata Hari marked the professional playwriting debut of Mike Stott (1944 - 2009), a prolific writer from Rochdale who would go on to a successful writing career on stage, television and radio. Immediately after working in Scarborough, he worked with Peter Brook at the Royal Shakespeare Company. He is probably best known for his 1973 play Funny Peculiar.
○ The majority of productions in 1965 were performed without an interval.
All information for this page has been researched and compiled by Simon Murgatroyd and should not be reproduced without permission. Any approved reproduction of information from this page should always credit 'A Round Town (www.theatre-in-the-round.co.uk).