22 May 1943, John Charter's wartime journal

I remember the last Passion Play in which I took a part was one called ‘The Garden’ written by Father someone and produced by Mrs Sidwell at Upper Holloway ((John’s Church in England)). I much preferred that play to Masfield’s. That must have been nearly 10 years ago. I took the part of Judas on that occasion – from Judas to Herod; I am progressing slowly.

I remember rehearsing for the Passion play in the open but covered space under St Stephens kitchen. The crowd was clamouring for the blood of Jesus and those of us who were not on stage at the time were watching a seaplane flying back and forth, towing a target, while two Japanese AA batteries along the coast banged away, and we watched the puffs of smoke in the blue sky. And the irony of it all struck me forcibly.

Some time during Feb or nearly in March, Y took part in a sketch with Nora Witsfell. Bill College had dramatised a short story about two girls at a finishing school in Brussels, one of them relating to the other her experiences de coeur during the recently ended holiday. He called it ‘That Romantic Age’. It was quite amusing and Nora and Yvonne did it very well – the first time I had seen Y act. But Bill had not dramatised it well, for it amounted almost to a monologue from Nora with a few interjected sentences from Yvonne. I had wanted to point this out to Bill, but did not like to as it was Y who was taking the smaller part. Later on Bill decided to put on ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ in the open air. He asked me to take the part of Lucentio with Richard as Petuchio. Winnie Cox as the shrew and Nora as Bianca, but Richard and Winnie and I cried off. I, because I wanted a rest, had been losing weight and the hot weather was coming. Then he cast Nora as the shrew and wanted Y as Bianca. Y would have loved to do it, but she too had lost a lot of weight and was looking a little tired, so she decided not to, too. The play is on now. We should have gone to it last night, but a black-out was suddenly ordered and the concert cancelled.

After ‘Esther’ Yvonne danced a very pretty solo (to a minuette) in a crinoline during one of the scenes of Dr I. Newton’s musical comedy ‘Mimi’, and she looked grand, everyone remarked on her dance. ‘Mimi’ was quite a brave effort for a completely camp production, but the principals let it down – their singing being particularly poor. There was a first class fashion parade during the show – all the carefully treasured costumes and dresses were paraded. It was quite pleasant to see well dressed people again. Betty Drown composed all the music.  

After the Passion play I plunged into the St George’s Day fray. Y had decided to take no part, but in a weak moment I agreed to produce the Victorian Pageant in collaboration with Sheila Mackinlay. James gave us a rough idea of what he wanted and left us to devise and cast it. His idea was two scenes, one of the young Queen and one of the old Queen watching two processions of contemporary Victorian characters. James had wanted me to take the part of the Prince Consort, but I wriggled out of that and actually, we found a much more suitable person – George Wright-Nooth ((later in life Deputy Commissioner of Police)) – to take the part. Dressed up and with side whiskers he really looked extraordinarily like Prince Albert.