The Last Day of November (1983)

2008-10-11T14:40:48Z

86.141.171.98: /* Gallery */

[[Image:Kaleidoscope1983poster.jpg|thumb|300px|Poster by [[Poster Designer]]]]

by [[John Yorath]]

Designed & Directed by [[Bruce Murray]]

Performances: Weds 2nd - Sat 5th February (late night shows on 4th & 5th) [[1983]], [[Bell Theatre|Main Stage]]

== Introduction ==

This play following the history of the Crystal Palace from its conception to it burning down on "the last day of November" 1936 was initially written by John Yorath to be performed by children...

In the SLTC version adults and children played the roles, each actor perfoming several characters.

Three projector screens were used for slides of the construction & events during the show and the centre screen showed a cine film of the fire that consumed the palace in 1936.

== Cast ==

*[[Alan Faulkner]]
*[[Anna Greenburg]]
*[[John Harris]]
*[[Fleur Hogarth]]
*[[Jeanette Hoile]]
*[[Jeremy Holding]]
*[[Leslie Lidyard]]
*[[John Lyne]]
*[[Ann Mattey]]
*[[Dennis Packham]]
*[[Ruth Lidyard|Ruth Shettle]]
*[[Anita Sollis]]
*[[James WInter]]
*[[Ann Wright]]

and

*[[Sam Armstrong]]
*[[Barbara Cowlard]]
*[[Natalie Harris]]
*[[Eleanor Rose]]
*[[Daniel Scobie]]
*[[Christopher Wakefield]]

== Crew ==

*Stage Manager - [[Bill Peters]]
*Assistants to all departments - [[Robert Coulden]], [[Hilda Coulden]], [[Lisca Hughes]], [[Terry Fawthrop]], [[Iris Lenny]], [[Linda White]] & [[Debby Parrett]]
*Lighting Design - [[Peter Boon]]
*Production Co-ordinator - [[Ann King]]
*Lighting Operator - [[Operator Name]]
*Sound Engineer - [[Stephen Smith]]
*Projector Operator - [[Brian Fretwell]]
*Production Assitant - [[Robert Hedden]]
*Costume Designer - [[Jeanette Hoile]]

== Reviews ==

Some review quotes go here

== Gallery ==
Photos from production in The Questors Studio Theatre later the same year
<gallery caption="Photos by [[Brian Fretwell]]" widths="100px" heights="100px" perrow="5">
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</gallery>

== 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.

== See Also ==

See also [[The Last Day Of November (1984)]]

This version was taken to the Studio Theatre at the Questors Theatre, Ealing.

== References ==
<references/>

== External Links ==

*'''[http://www.someplace.com/thisplay This play on the web]

[[Category:Productions|Last Day Of November (1983),The]]
[[Category:Bell Theatre Productions|Last Day Of November (1983),The]]

The Last Day of November (1984)

2008-10-11T14:37:05Z

86.141.171.98: /* Crew */

[[Image:CHANGETHISNAME.jpg|thumb|300px|Poster by [[Poster Designer]]]]

by [[John Yorath]]

Directed by [[Bruce Murray]]

Performances: Sun 2nd - Sat 8th December [[1984]], [[Bell Theatre]]

== Introduction ==

This play was initially written by John Yorath to be performed by children...

It told the story of the Crystal Palace, from its planning to hold the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park in 1854, its building, relocation to Sydenham Hill and its final destruction by fire on the last day of November 1936.

This was a restaged version with a slightly different cast and set.

== Cast ==

*[[Chris Dickinson]]
*[[Jack Edwards]]
*[[Lynn Foster]]
*[[Lesley Finney]]
*[[Trevor Gill]]
*[[Nikki Packham|Nikki Hogg]]
*[[Jeannie Hossell]]
*[[Haydn Leaker]]
*[[Jonathan Lewis]]
*[[John Lyne]]
*[[Dennis Packham]]
*[[Julie Thompson]]

== Crew ==

*Stage Manager - [[Cheryl Webb]]
*Assistant Stage Managers - [[Sue Arnold]], [[John Kidd]]
*Lighting Design - [[Richard Wood]]
*Lighting Operators - [[Mark Ahearn]], [[Laura Hussey]], [[David Groves]]
*Sound - [[Bill Peters]]
*Projector Operator - [[Brian Fretwell]]
*Set Building - [[Bruce Murray]] & [[David Lamkin]]
*Prompt - [[Linda White]]
*Wardrobe & Costumes - [[Jeanette Hoile]], [[Iris Lenny]], [[Hilda Coulden]], [[Frances Johnson]] & [[Lynn Jenner]]

== Reviews ==

....Bruce Murray, who is about to return to his native New Zealand, goes out with a blaze in his prodcution for the South London Theatre Centre of local author John Yorath's "The Last Day of November". The sub-title is "Crystal Palace - the end of an Era"

A round dozen performers at the Bell Theatre play out John yorath's version of events. Great names stalk his pages: designer Paxton, railway chairman Lang, engineer Brunel. It is an absorbing tale that justifies its two-hour treatment, though I think it a was great mistake to present it without an interval, since the saga falls almost pat into two parts.

Some of the chosen music is worrying, too. The acquisition of a new site is greeted by, of all things, Smetna's "Ma Vlast" as if the Crystal Palace were being moved to Bohemia.

But the choice of the closing bars of Shostakovitch's fifth symphony to see out the fire seems as appropriate as anything else except, possibly, Siegfried's Funeral March.

The cast performs with great spirit, with especially commendable work from the central trio: John Lyne as Paxton, Jack Edwards as the forceful Lang and Haydn Leaker as the dissident director Farquar.

Nikki Hogg is a gracefully dignified homegrown Queen Victoria, and Dennis Packham, one of the two survivors from the production of two years ago, is the egregious Col. Sibthorp, who did his best to scupper the whole operation.

Donald Madgwick, January 1985 SCENE, reprinted from the Croydon Advertiser with permission.

== Gallery ==

== 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.

== See Also ==
[[The Last Day Of November (1983)]]

The orginal staging of this play was also taken to [http://www.questors.org.uk/ The Questors Theatre]

== References ==
<references/>

== External Links ==

*'''[http://www.someplace.com/thisplay This play on the web]

[[Category:Productions|Last Day Of November (1984),The]]
[[Category:Bell Theatre Productions|Last Day Of November (1984),The]]

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The Last Day of November (1983)

The Last Day of November (1984)