Semi-Detached

by David Turner

February  10, 11, 12  1966

Directed by George Baker

GB wrote: "This is a farce about the modern status race and is in the Classical tradition of say, Jonson or Molier.  But don't be put off by that - you are meant to laugh [as their audiences did at their plays] and we hope you will at this one.

The names of the characters indicate their respective types or present 'status' - Fred Midway, Mrs. Midfield [see better days], Bob Freeman and Mr. Makepiece [the gathering of wealth and completing the piece.]

A week or so ago there was a revealing article in the Observer which, if true, makes it clear that the status race is with us for some time to come - in fact large employers of labour appear to welcome and encourage it;  it is one of the few stimuli that makes us work now! 

You may be surprised and interested to learn that the play was commissioned by the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry and first presented to celebrate the re-opening of Coventry Cathedral and in December 1962 was transferred to the Savliie Theatre in London with Sir Laurence Olivier as Fred Midway."

Cast

Publicity of the time

N.H

" Producer on loan for one play "

Ever heard of a theatre company asking their greatest rival to lend them their producer for one play only?  Well,  Wick Theatre Company did just this.  They asked Southwick Payers if they could transfer on a temporary basis their producer, George Baker.  The Players agreed and George was in charge of things for the Wick's latest play, David Turner's witty Semi-Detached , which ran for three days last week at the Barn Theatre, Southwick. 

Why did they want George in the first place?  Ian Elliott, who played the leading rôle of Fred Midway, answered that point on the first night:  "George is a marvelous producer.  The tolerant way he handles  the players is par excellence."  Ian also says his own part is the most exacting he's ever personally encountered.  "Can you blame me for feeling nervous.  There's about 90 pages in the script and I'm in for about 80-odd.  I'm on stage, too, for just about the whole of the 2½  hours."

The play must be the funniest the company has presented.  It is a skit on the modern rat-race and it's done with the company's customary polish.  Fred Midway, an insurance man, is a social climber if ever there was one, but his progress up the social ladder is retarded by all sorts of curious complications.  The language is very adult but never offensive and the audience took it in the right spirit.

The company's next production, April 13 - 16, is Eugene O'Neill's A Touch of the Poet.   

BRIGHTON AND HOVE GAZETTE

THESPIS

" Fred and Co. capture that uneasy feeling "

The  Wick Theatre Company production last week  of David Turner's comedy  Semi-Detached  was a considerable achievement.  It is, perhaps, not generally recognised how difficult a conventional comedy is.  To succeed in it, as the Wick Theatre Company succeeded, requires unremitting hard work by both producer and cast.

The story revolves round the completely amoral Fred Midway whose only criterion of success is money and the various ruses and manoevres [sic] that he contrives to better his position in the rat race.   

The really considerable achievement in this production was Jean Porter's Mrs. Medway.  The amount of thought, inventiveness, and concentration given to this part could be seen in every gesture, every turn of the head, every adoring glance at her slickly successful, self-educated husband.  It was completely successful.  Running a close second was Ian Elliott as the master-mind himself.  So superbly cocky in his correspondence-course culture, so delighted with his own contrivances and with genuine if self-centred delight in his family.  The family consists of the son, Tom, most naturally played by Terry Phillips; the married daughter, Avril, played with enormous vitality by Fay Sturt; and the pushing-thirty, still unmarried, Eileen with left-wing tendencies, and 'old-fashioned' ideas of truth and honesty played by Jean Bailey.  

A point of strength with this production was the excellent playing of the four smaller rôles.  Bob Freeman, separated from his wife , having an affair with Eileen, and himself a contender in the status race, nicely characterised by Barrie Bowen; Nigel Hadfield, husband of daughter Avril, made a superbly comic character by David Goodger; his mother, Mrs. Garnet Hadfield, poised, domineering and beautifully bitchy by Betty Dawes; and Nigel's uncle, Arnold Makepiece, the industrialist with a taste for young girls, by Ralph Dawes.  Production was by George Baker, of the Southwick Players, with Clodagh O'Farrell as stage manger.

The play is a tract of the times with a disconcerting undercurrent of truth.  It is a great tribute to cast and producer [ and particularly, perhaps, to the producer] that despite the fun and frolics I came away feeling a trifle uneasy. 

Another review of the time

C.S.P

" Fun poked at status struggle "

The  Wick Theatre Company was in splendid form at Barn Hall, Southwick, last weekend.  David Turner's fruity farce Semi-Detached was ripe for a harvest of laughs, and with a cast hand-picked by guest producer George Baker, of the Southwick Players, they just couldn't go wrong.  He set them a cracking pace, which was maintained without so much as a hint of flagging.  Every situation in this fun-poke at keeping up with the Joneses was exploited to the full, and there were some grand character studies, deliberately overplayed but none the worse for that. 

The play depicted an anything but peaceful Sunday morning for the Midway family, experts in climbing the social ladder.  Ian Elliott, as Fred, the father and arch-exponent of the cult, gave a roundly satisfying performance with never a weak line.  A droll study of Hilda, his status-conscious wife, as given by Jean Porter, and their daughters were played by Fay Sturt [spoiled temperamental Avril], the married one, and  newcomer Jean Bailey [Eileen, the only believer in honesty being the best policy].  Adding appreciably to the fun were David Goodger as Nigel, Avril's husband; Betty Dawes as his overbearing mother; Barrie Bowen as Robert, Eileen's married man friend; Ralph Dawes as Arnold Makepiece, a wealthy but somewhat dirty old man; and second new face, Terry Phillippe, amusing as the teenage son, Tom.  

Clodagh O'Farrell was stage manager, Frank Hurrell was in charge of lighting, properties were by Margaret Perrett, sound effects by Terry Mase and the most effective scenery by Barrie Bowen.  Dorothy Burnside was production manager and Morfydd Bowen wardrobe mistress.