70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries

‘Laburnum Grove’ had a somewhat difficult and interrupted voyage. Originally it was due to be performed on Nov 4th and I had the first play reading on 18th Sept. Then for various reasons the production date was postponed from one week to another – either the Japanese withheld their permission for some of the earlier shows to be performed, or sickness in the cast of earlier shows meant postponement and every entertainment was therefore pushed back a week or two. Then at the beginning of Nov, when the news of a repatriation list was first announced, Mrs Tinson (who is on the list) said she thought she ought to drop out in case the date of repatriation fell too near the date of the production. I hastily searched round for a suitable substitute but the four women I approached, although liking the part, declined either for reasons of health or time. In the end I decided to take the risk – and Mrs Tinson is still here with all the other repatriates!

Then I decided that Bevan would never make the grade in his part and had to tell him so. He was very sporting about it – tone inflections was his bug bear; he is quite tone deaf and was quite unable to get the expressions I wanted into his words. In his place I put Margrett (to play the part of Bernard Baxley) leaving him only three weeks in which to master his part. At first he made gigantic strides in memorizing his part; he learnt one act per day and though by no means word perfect, he kept the sense of the dialogue going and needed very little prompting. He was a school friend of Melville Cooper, who played the part in the original production at the Duchess Theatre, and was very keen about it. But unfortunately he simply would not get nearer than an approximation of his lines and ‘fluffed’ with enormous vitality and gest to the bitter end – rather putting off for the other players who were never quite sure whether he was off the rails or not, and when they had to come in! He also started off by telling us how he thought the part should be played and I thought there might be friction, but he soon seemed to become quite amenable to my ideas.

This is the first play I have produced with actors and actresses with, in some cases, many more years of seniority and acting experience than I possess and I felt rather diffident at first: however, I lost my temper a bit at one rehearsal and did a bit of shouting and that gave me all the confidence I needed!

A few days after bringing in Margrett, the Japanese decided to allow only two shows per month instead of four and that put us back two more weeks. At that point Tony Cole who had been playing the rather unsympathetic part of Harold Russ (and doing it quite well I thought) told me he did not feel happy in the part and would rather drop out. He said he would have gone through with it but for this extra two weeks which would give me time to find a substitute. I decided that if he felt unhappy in the part it would be better for him to drop out and after trying out one or two people I rather reluctantly took on Colin Coles. It is a difficult part to fill and I was afraid Coles was going to be the weak link in the show. He was poor during rehearsals but somehow became galvanized into life and action during the performances and put up a very creditable show.

Gordon Stopane-Thompson was playing the part of Detective Inspector Stack, but he was not well and developed boils and so I decided (very reluctantly) to understudy the part myself. Richard Mills – who was already rehearsing as Joseph in the Christmas Nativity play and as an ugly sister in the pantomime ‘Cinderella’ – offered to play the part if I did not want to do it myself. I had said I thought he would do it very well, but knowing how booked up he was I did no more than drop a hint. However, I gladly accepted his offer, and a good job he made of it. Even in the very small part of Sgt Morris I had to make a change as my first pick did not come up to expectations. Eventually the dates for our production were fixed for Thurs, Fri and Sat, Dec 20, 21 and 22.