[No surviving envelope]
Letter 18.
IMurder in the Cathedral1945 Théâtre du Vieux Colombier production;g2compared to Martin Browne's;a4 was about to send you the programme of the ‘Vieux Colombier’ when I found that it was just too large for any envelope I have: so it will have to follow from the office. TheFranceFrench theatre;b5;a1 production, as I said last week, was extremely good. The effect, indeed, was of something more professional than the London production; and I have always felt that Martin’s creations suggested rather the talented amateur. The difference was partly due to having much more tasteful costumes, and partly to the perfection of the chorus. These (seven very plain and hardworking young women) were garbed in simple costumes of the period, generally the same in style (as it would have been) but in different arrangements of solid colours; so that they gave an impression of individuality and at the same time made a pleasant pattern together. TheyDoat, Janas chorus-master;a2 had been trained by an amusing little man named Jan Doat, who must be very good indeed, for their unison (they spoke more often in unison than the English chorus) was perfect. The movement was from the singing to the speaking voice: they began their choruses usually in a kind of chant or plainsong, and when the lines were partitioned, did them in a speaking voice. TheVilar, Jeanas Becket in Meurtre;a1 Archbishop, Jean Vilar, was excellent, and did his sermon very well indeed, without too much of the French oratorical manner. Tempters and knights were both better than the English: only the priests were perhaps not quite so good. TheFluchère, Henrihis translation of Murder;a2 translation is excellent, literal but natural. One curious effect is that the element of comedy is toned down; the knights’ speeches were not at all like a parody of a public meeting, but extremely serious; in consequence the effect is much more disturbing and terrifying, as of a strict totalitarian logic. I think the impression on the audience is much more of uncertainty. It is partly that an English (or American) audience, being familiar with the story and the chief character, takes for granted that the archbishop is in the right: a French audience, to whom the story is unfamiliar, is more inclined to take the knights’ point of view seriously.
Considering that both the story and the dramatic method were unfamiliar, I thought that the audience at the two rehearsals which I saw, responded very appreciatively. These audiences were about half invited guests, and half paid tickets. Itravels, trips and plansTSE's June 1945 trip to Paris;f5recounted;a2 skipped three more rehearsals, and went next on the night of the générale et gala (générale because the critics were there, gala because the grands personnages were there (i.e. theCooper, (Alfred) Duff, 1st Viscount Norwichand wife at Meurtre gala;a6 Duff Coopers,1 one or two government ministers, a bishop or two, the Turkish Ambassador etc.: the American Ambassador had been invited also but did not come) when the audience is said never to be so responsive. The night after, which was the last evening I was there, the audience was better again. It was impossible in the time to say whether Paris would really take to the play or not; but if not, that will be because it is not their kind of play, and will not have been due to any weakness in the production or acting. The daily papers, which are numerous but only one small sheet each, give very little space to dramatic criticism; the interesting criticism will have appeared this week in the weeklies, which I hope will be sent to me in due course.
IBritish Councilwartime trip to Paris;a8 enjoyed this visit and found it less tiring. I did not have to speak in public, or give any radio interviews – I merely appeared on the stage on the first night. I was very well looked after by the Vieux Colombier people, and well fed. (I was interested to read a day or two ago in a paper, that one restaurant where I had twice lunched, had just been raided because of its black market activities, and all the diners haled [?hauled] to the police station!) There seemed to be no meat in the restaurants, black market or not: IGill, Austin;a1 had meat only twice, once at the flat of the Gills2 (Gill is the British Council agent, and is provisioned from the Anglo-American stores) andBadel, Paul Annet;a1 once at the Badels.3 That is an odd household. Monsieur Badel is the owner of the theatre; apparently he is a very prosperous business man who makes the theatre his hobby. Perhaps the fact that his wife, who is young enough to be his daughter and very pretty, is an actress, has something to do with his interest in the theatre. SheSartre, Jean-PaulHuis-Clos;a2 is Gaby Sylvia, who was one of the cast of three in Huis-Clos, the play by J. P. Sartre which has been the intellectual success of the last season, and which was also at the Vieux Colombier. The Badels have a house, near the Place Pereire; and I had a superb lunch there, with roast mutton cooked with just the right amount of garlic. TheFranceParis;b7post-war;a8 Badels also took a party, one evening, to the Chale d’Armenonville, which is one of the most expensive restaurants out in the Bois de Boulogne. There were nine people in all, and the dinner cost 12,000 francs. It was interesting, though repugnant, to see such a place, thriving just as if it were 1939, crowded with people, dining and dancing: but I got very bored and sick of it before the evening was out. To see such luxury and waste going on, so openly, when so many people in France can hardly keep body and soul together, seemed ominous. TheDietrich, Marlenepointed out to TSE;a1 sameBaker, Josephinepointed out to TSE;a1 old world of smart and vulgar fashion, mixed with figures like Marlene Dietrich and Josephine Baker, both of whom were pointed out to me. ButFluchère, HenriTSE takes to;a3 I took quite a fancy to Henri Fluchère, a little professor of English at Aix who is my translator of Murder, and M. and Madame Modave (the former Belgian, the latter Australian) who were in general charge of me on behalf of the theatre, were very agreeable. I also found the actors very intelligent and friendly. Nobody mentioned Syria, and I got the impression that people in Paris were too much concerned with immediate problems of livelihood, food, and the prospects of heating next winter, to bother themselves much in external politics. Madame Badel told me, in connexion with the fact that theatres are not heated at all in the winter, that when she was acting in evening dress she suffered bitterly from the cold before she went on the stage and after she came off; but that while you were acting, you forgot about it. The audience could keep their coats and furs on, and did.
This letter is really a report on Paris, and I shall write an ordinary sort of letter next Monday. ThisBritish General Election1945;a2 week I come back to Shamley on Wednesday night, in order to cast my vote; butOldham, Joseph;e8 IMoot, The;d5 have to go off again on Friday to one of Oldham’s weekend conferences. TomorrowHayward, Johnflat-hunting with;l9 I go to look at a flat in Chelsea which one of John’s lady friends has discovered; and this morning Freda Lovingbird went to see it representing me. It sounds just what is needed – ground floor, with porter, so that John could get in and out – large, and the only out is that it needs thorough re-decorating. So I think the only consideration will be the price.4 I'Preface' (to The Dark Side of the Moon);a1 have promised to write a preface to a book on the history of the relations of Russia and the Poles, which will give me some trouble.5 ItFaber and Faber (F&F)consider moving to Grosvenor Place;f4 would be strange to live in Chelsea, and have an office overlooking Buckingham Palace – for that is where Faber and Faber are likely to be moving sometime next year, to Grosvenor Place. I am longing to be settled – for what the word ‘settled’ can mean.
1.(Alfred) Duff Cooper (1890–1954), Conservative Party politician, diplomat, writer and diarist, served as British Ambassador to France, 1944–7. His wife (married in 1919) was the socialite Lady Diana Manners (1892–1986).
2.AustinGill, Austin Gill (1906–90): scholar of French literature and culture, lectured at the University of Edinburgh, 1933–43, before being recruited as British Council representative in Paris, in Aug. 1944. After a year in Paris, he returned to the UK to teach modern languages at Magdalen College, Oxford, 1945–50; and he was again Director of the British Council in Paris, 1950–4.
3.PaulBadel, Paul Annet Annet Badel (1900–85), a French businessman, purchased the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier, proposing to use the venue as a jazz club. Yet he arranged the première at his theatre of Huis-Clos, by Jean-Paul Sartre (May 1944), and of Murder in the Cathedral (June 1945). His wife was Gaby Sylvia, née Gabrielle Zignani (1920–80), film and TV actor. See Marie-Françoise Christout, Noëll Guibert and Danièle Pauly, Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier 1913–93 (1993).
4.TSE19 Carlyle Mansions, LondonTSE's tour of no. 14;a1n looked initially at a ground-floor flat – no. 14, Carlyle Mansions, Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London S.W.3 – but ultimately agreed to take the lease of no. 19, on the third floor.
Valerie Eliot to Christopher Southgate, University of Exeter, 12 July 1994: ‘TSE found the Chelsea flat, saw to its repair, decoration, and the lease. He occupied two rooms at the back, leaving the front ones overlooking the Thames to JH.’ Valerie Eliot to Jim McCue, 7 Mar. 1995: ‘Did you know that my husband lived at 19 Carlyle Mansions, and when he took the flat he had no idea that James had lived above it? I purchased some time ago the novelist’s own copy of Notes of a Son and Brother, partly because he had written his name and address in it.’
See further Simon Day, ‘Rooms with a View: The Centenary of Carlyle Mansions, Cheyne Walk’, Country Life, 20 Nov. 1986, 1654–5.
The initial rent for the flat was £360 per annum for a period of three years.
5.Preface to The Dark Side of the Moon [by Zoe Zajdlerowa] (F&F, 1946): CProse 6, 742–7.
3.PaulBadel, Paul Annet Annet Badel (1900–85), a French businessman, purchased the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier, proposing to use the venue as a jazz club. Yet he arranged the première at his theatre of Huis-Clos, by Jean-Paul Sartre (May 1944), and of Murder in the Cathedral (June 1945). His wife was Gaby Sylvia, née Gabrielle Zignani (1920–80), film and TV actor. See Marie-Françoise Christout, Noëll Guibert and Danièle Pauly, Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier 1913–93 (1993).
6.AlfredCooper, (Alfred) Duff, 1st Viscount Norwich Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich of Aldwick (1890–1954), since 1937, First Lord of the Admiralty.
2.JanDoat, Jan Doat (1909–88): celebrated French theatre, opera and TV director; actor and writer.
2.AustinGill, Austin Gill (1906–90): scholar of French literature and culture, lectured at the University of Edinburgh, 1933–43, before being recruited as British Council representative in Paris, in Aug. 1944. After a year in Paris, he returned to the UK to teach modern languages at Magdalen College, Oxford, 1945–50; and he was again Director of the British Council in Paris, 1950–4.
11.JohnHayward, John Davy Hayward (1905–65), editor and critic: see Biographical Register.
8.JosephOldham, Joseph (‘Joe’) Houldsworth Oldham (1874–1969), missionary, adviser, organiser: see Biographical Register.
3.JeanMurder in the Cathedral1945 Théâtre du Vieux Colombier production;g2 Vilar’s production of Murder in the Cathedral opened at the Vieux-Colombier Theatre on 18 June 1945. VilarVilar, Jean (1912–71), actor-producer and administrator, who founded his acting company in 1943, was awarded in 1945 the Prix du Théâtre for his outstanding work on Murder and on Strindberg’s Dance of Death. In 1947 he founded the Avignon Festival, the first drama festival in France; and he was appointed director of the prestigious state-owned Théâtre National Populaire, 1947–63. His acting roles included Macbeth, Don Juan and the gangster in Brecht’s Arturo Ui; and his productions extended from French plays to Aristophanes, Shakespeare, Beckett and Robert Bolt.