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Preview by Paul Nelson
AWARD-winning
Emmerdale actress, Anna Brecon, is to star in a rare London production
of The Children's Hour, by Lillian Hellman, at the Union Theatre,
from March 4 - 22.
Most Popular Newcomer in the 1998 National Television awards, Anna spent four
years in the top 10 ITV soap Emmerdale as scheming, high-spending Lady
Tara Oakwell - modeled on 'It girls' Tara Palmer-Tomkinson and Tamara Beckwith.
In The Children's Hour - voted play of its year in the recent Royal
National Theatre poll of the best plays of the century - Anna plays Karen
Wright, one of two teachers running a boarding school for young girls, whose
reputations are ruined after a pupil starts a malicious rumour that they're
having a lesbian relationship.
The cast also includes Tracy Wiles, as the other teacher, Martha. Tracy earned
rave reviews in Thirsty Dog Productions' acclaimed production of Bertolt Brecht's
Happy End, staged promenade-style in a
King's Cross pub, and in the extremely successful revival of Side
By Side By Sondheim at the Landor Theatre.
The Children's Hour, written in 1934, was Lillian Hellman's first play.
According to her exercises in autobiography, she painstakingly wrote and rewrote
the piece, then shyly showed it to her lover and mentor, Dashiell Hammett.
He read it carefully, tore it up and told her to write it again. It was that
version that was seen on Broadway.
It was an immediate success. It shows graphically how lies can literally ruin
people's lives. As Hellman herself once said, the lie could easily have been
about anything and still have the same tragic consequences, although she as
a writer was being very brave at the time by using lesbianism as an issue
and challenging people to confront it.
Her message in the play is that bigotry in all its forms is fundamentally
based on lies and a disregard for the truth, whether it be on the grounds
of sexual preference, race, gender or political beliefs - something she was
to have first hand experience of in 1951 when, because of her well-known political
views, she and Hammett were called to appear before the House Committee of
Un-American Activities.
Hellman agreed to talk about her own involvement with radical groups, but
was unwilling to give the names of her comrades and as a result was blacklisted.
Hammett, as well as being blacklisted, was sent to prison for six months.
In 1939, Hellman had her second major success with The Little Foxes,
which was followed by two anti-Nazi plays, Watch on the Rhine (1941)
and The Searching Wind (1944).
In March 1935, the first planned London production of The Children's Hour
was refused a licence by the Lord Chamberlain, Earl Cromer, who forbade
presentation of the play 'because of its theme'. The play finally opened in
London under the auspices of a private theatre club over which the Lord Chamberlain
had no jurisdiction.
Lillian Hellman herself directed a successful Broadway revival of The Children's
Hour in 1952, several months after her widely publicised defiance of the
House Committee on Un-American Activities. This revival featured Kim Hunter
as Karen and Patricia Neal as Martha. Two film versions have been made, both
directed by William Wyler.
For These Three (1936) Hellman's screenplay altered the accusations
of lesbian misconduct between Karen and Martha to charges that Martha was
observed having illicit sex with Karen's fiancé, Joe, a lie just as
destructive to the school as that advanced in the stage play. These Three
starred Merle Oberon as Karen and Miriam Hopkins as Martha. It was a huge
box-office success, and Bonita Granville was nominated for an Academy Award
for her performance as the malicious pupil, Mary.
Wyler returned to Hellman's play as source material for his 1960s remake,
which was released in Britain in 1962 under the title The Loudest Whisper,
starring Shirley MacLaine as Martha and Audrey Hepburn as Karen.
The idea for the play came from William Roughead's novel, Bad Companions,
which provided Hellman with an account of 'The Great Drumsheugh Case', which
had taken place in 1810. Roughead's book outlined the legal battles fought
by two Edinburgh schoolmistresses to clear themselves against accusations
of lesbianism made by a pupil at the school they owned jointly.
The Children's Hour, by Lillian Hellman, Directed by Danny Ghossain, WITH:
Anna Brecon and Tracey Wiles. Presented by Thirsty Dog Productions at the
Union Theatre, 204 Union Street, London SE1, from March 4 to March 22 at 7.30pm
(matinees Saturdays March 15 & 22 at 4pm). Tickets 020 7261 9876
