Forty Years On (1980)

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Poster by Malcolm Johnson

by Alan Bennett

Directed by Harry Sanders

Performances: Sun 6th – Sat 12th April 1980, Main Stage


Introduction

The play is set in a British public school called Albion House, which is putting on an end of term play in front of the parents, i.e. the audience. The play within the play is about the changes that had happened to the country following the end of the Great War in 1918 and the loss of innocence and a generation of young men.

Cast

STAFF

BOYS

Crew

Reviews

Croydon Advertiser, Donald Madgwick, Forty Years On. Main Theatre: 6-12 April. Alan Bennett's "Forty Years On" looks back, not just in anger, but with a mixture of amused irony and genuine affection, at the vanishing world of Imperial England, from the beginning of her decline in 1900 to its completion by two world wars. / It is a big theme, challenging all the resources of a big playwright. Bennett is certainly a writer of brilliant lines, but that is not quite the same thing. / The play lacks unity and consistency. Too often the author, who can seldom resist the flashy effect, falls victim to his own cleverness. / Harry Saunder's production plays the changing moods for what they are worth. The performance of John Lyne as the head is sharp and observant, with a good feel, especially for the tomfoolery of such passages as the oration on Lawrence of Arabia. / Adrian McLoughlin, as another of the masters, has some splendid moments in a parody of Wilde's style, and later in another zany speech, this time about the redoubtable Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury set. / Pam Lyne plays the school matron with great comic energy, and Clare Atkins also mines a rich vein of humour as Miss Nisbett, the bursar's secretary. As the head boy, Nathan Ariss narrates the inner play with lucid precision. / The cast of boys on the whole work well, but co-ordination could be improved at those moments when the head catches one or other of them out in surreptitious activities.

Gallery

  • 40YearsOn001.jpg

Reminiscences and Anecdotes

Members are encouraged to write about their experiences of working on or seeing this production. Please leave your name. Anonymous entries may be deleted.

This was my eighth and last play at SLTC in six great years. Here the children playing school students did not come from the Saturday drama classes. We were on stage for virtually the whole show, which was fun, interacting with the various school masters. My character Lord got one of the biggest laughs of the show, each night: The Head had earlier told me off for picking my nose (!) and then later on addressed the school in prayer, "Thank you, Lord" - to which I answered, "You're welcome". At one point, Bennett has the boys chanting the kings of England, and I can still remember them from this rhyme, "Willy, Willy, Harry, Stee, Harry, Dick, John, Harry three....". When we were offstage, Nathan Ariss taught me to juggle! I found the play great fun, and I remember the audience enjoying all the comic scenes. After SLTC, I was still involved in drama at my school in Tooting, but moved increasingly into choral singing, which is where I've enjoyed my amateur performing in subsequent years. I was reminded in 2019 of my time at SLTC when I had the chance to sing in a community choir in the staged production of Kurt Weill's "The Silver Lake" with English Touring Opera: backstage, with people rushing on and off stage, under the direction of the stage managers, I was transported back to my happy years at SLTC in the 1970s. Philip Parker (cast member)

See Also

Have there been other SLCT/SLT productions of this play? Link to them here.

Or add anything that is related within this site. The author's page for instance or other plays with a similar theme.

References

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External Links

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