THE HOUSE ON THE BRIDGE by Edward Percy

Eric Saxton discusses his production for The Compton Players ADS, Newbury.

Edward Percy is best known for his plays LADIES I R£Il REMENT and SHOP AT SLY COR ER. TH E HOUSE ON THE BRIDGE was given a short provincial tour in 1944 with Cedric Hardwicke, Denis Arundel and Vivienne Belrnett in a cast surely intended to progress to London. However, it never got there, and the author rewrote it considerably before allowing an Oxford gro up, The herwell Players, to produce the amateur premiere in 19 8, the author himself a tten d ing two performances. The play has never been published, but as a young art student who designed the set for that production, I kept my typewritten copy of the script. I have long wished to do my own production of what I believe to be a strong, well constructed, historical dramatic thriller.

PLOT

TI1e play is se t in the grand parlour of Jonathan Dale's house on old London Bridge. The year is 1665 and the plague rages outside.

Jonathan Dale is a goldsmith, partner of Bullen and Dale of Cheapside. His Royalist partner, Sir Richard Bullen, who escaped ruin and possible death under the protectorship, was saved by the Puritan Dale. I ow the King is restored , Sir Richard is not so accommOdating. Jonathan, believing he has been sent by God and under his instructions, plots to secure all the firm 's riches for himself as a means to restore the Commonwealth. To this end he inveigles Sir Richard, with his son Pierce and his young second wife, plus all the firm's wealth, into his house. He gets rid of Sir Richard early on by infecting him with a p lague ring, and later murders Pierce when the latter discovers \'idence of embezzlement in the

finn' books. The rest of the h u.:;ehold now realise they are - ut up with a madman and manage to get he lp via the chimr ey which the boy climbs to ~:lre Aiter they have been

- ~. the play ends with _than al ne with his

rcas, in the locked .: ki!:~ him and then,

...,."....,.11",,:- tr. . ~hl' also now has the - a~ hi!: teet. Jonathan

realises that although he now has all the firm 's wealth, it is useless and in the encircling dark, his dreams in tatters, her curses rus God as a liar.

CASTING

The play has a wide variety of characters and ages, which offer opportunities and scope for the amateur company. One difficulty might be the young boy - it is important that he can act, not just be an extra. We were fortunate in finding three. They attended all rehearsa ls and eventually did one performance each. They became almost indivis ible, sometimes changing places in mid-scene at rehearsals without the cast really noticing.

There are seven men and five women.

Jonathan Dale, aged 50, is an ex­parliamentary soldier. His own trunning hair is worn long and iron

grey. He has powerfully moulded fea tures, a bright eye, and a certain grim, remorseless humour. His deep vein of fanaticism and hate is too strong at times for complete sanity.

Sir Richard Bullen is a Little man, older than Jonathan, though he has worn less well. Dressed foppishly in full periwig and rouge, he has a wrinkled face, thin legs and tremulous hands.

Pierce Bullen, in his mid-thirties, is intelligent, hot tempered and debonair. He is handsomely dressed but more soberly than rus father.

Tom Rickaby is a small, pert, jolly cockney.

Roger Pipe r, an actor from Bankside, is a thickset, jovial young man in rus early twenties.

Dorcas Hamnet (aged 38) is Jonathan's housekeeper/ mis tress.

Dark, handsome, plainly d re 51;

she has a hint of hidden fires ab _ her

Anne Carr (aged 60), Jonathan widowed sister, is a small, talkab woman, vehement, and a fo DeborLl h. her daughter, is a \'er pretty 20 year old.

Lady Bullen, aged 30, is Pierc~ ­

s tepmother. She is fine lookin\! proud, gracious, passiona t... head strong, but well bred.

The begga r woman, Bl ind Bidd y. i­a stou t old Irishwoman, the cut an figure of a midwife clad i voluminous rags . Dirty, g rea . scabrous, horrible. One ey i­covered with a patch, the o th simpiy skin drawn across an empt socke t. Dialec t west coast. (S appears only in one very importar scene - a cameo gift for th company's character actress .)

Constable the Wa tch is largl pompous. The Old Porter is hearty old soldier, while the Youn\. Porter has an aggressive air. Thes­last three appear only brie tl during the opening sequence of t . play, but a re a vital part of settin the scene. The parts must be giver to competent actors.

REHEARSALS

After casting the play, we were to l tha t our venue, the local vi lIagt hall, was due to undergo extensh refurbishment, so we postpon our plans. We spent six we ' blocking in all moves and th suspended rehearsals, with th, instruction that everyone sholu come back word perfect and \\ would spend six more we ' polishing and fine tuning bef 'f;

the performances.

We rehea rse twice weekly from 7.­to 10 pm and are lucky enough be able to do so on stage in t village hall, so we can mark out t exact positions of doors, furniture etc.

I split the pla y into manageab sections, rehearSing each pie several times before joining th together into longer sections, the'" two halves, and finaLly the wh play for the last two weeks. T play is written in three acts, but \\ took our interval between Scene and Scene 2 of Act II.

16 JU,'iN

SCENERY

e now designed this set for amateur performances, on

\ ely small stages. The first in -~ was 16ft wide and 18ft deep. .Ir p resent stage has a proscenium

rung of 21ft and is only 14ft There is an awful lot to fit small space, but it can be

set requires a visible trapdoor ~ntial) into which up to three

pie must disappear at anyone me. We built a 4ft apron stage to -commodate this.

There is a heavy oak door to the -Ired with sliding spy hole to view ·;t llers. During the action the utside of the door has a cross and

11e words "God have mercy on us" .linted on it. This must be clearly ' isiblc when the door is opened

inwards. I solved this problem by na ving two full- sized panels with and without the inscription, but Identical in all other respects. We changed these in the inte rval, rather than repaint the door each evening.

There are double doors upstage leading to a hallway, stairs and further doors to withdrawing room and kitchen. There is also a built-in cupboard which has to be large enough to conceal a murdered nliln.

There is a wide open hearth with iron rungs set into the brickwork. The boy climbs this twice so it has to be sturdily built.

A wide stone mullioned casement window overlooks a panoramic view of the Thames.

I decided to paint the entire floor, including the apron, with black and white squares in perspective. Although this was only Slightly visible to the audience, it gave the actors it real sense of place.

The soI.id wooden furniture, a table, four chairs and a desk, must look authentically early 17th century. This is not difficult as there is much mid-20th century stuff in junk ;hops that can be adapted "urprisingly easily. We did, however, have to make the 'irginals, which concealed an lectronic keyboard programmed

harpsichord. This has to be !' ayed on stage. We could not rely

recorded music, as two actresses 'e to tentatively pick out a tune

d eventually sing to their own --ompaniment.

LIGHTING

set is lit by a central hanging _ rn, by two candelabra (four

branches ach), upper lighting in the hall, moonlight from the river, and a fitful red lantern from the street.

Our hanging lantern had six candles. There were eight more in the two candelabra and a further five or six which were carried around. Real candles, of course, are not allowed because of fire regulations. At one point the candles on the lantern and candelabra are snuffed out one by one and later relit. This meant they could not be moved, as we had to wire each candle individually to a switch off stage. Mobile candles were battery operated and were brought on already lit.

Our special efiects man made individual circuits for each of the 14 candles so that they flickered at random. Of course we also had to manufacture the actual lantern and candelabra so that all the wiring could be hidden inside.

Most of the action takes place in la te afternoon or evening so the effect I wanted was of 'Vermeer' type interior, dimly but atmospherically lit, at the same time providing enough light to be seen by.

ln the last act there is a gradually increasing thunderstorm with lightning (for which we used camera flashes), leading to a thunderclap and complete blackout. The last five or ten

minutes of the play are virtually l.it by a few candles, undellining the claustrophobic ending. We succeeded in producing a chiaroscuro effect worthy of Rembrandt.

COSTUMES

We were fortunate in finding someone for this production who not only has the abiI.ity, but enjoys making costumes. Working in close co-operation with my designs and colour schemes, she made virtually all the costumes used.

I wanted the opening to be browns, russet, ochre and black, to underline the Puritan household, so that when the Royalist characters appear, colour floods onto the stage, giving a glimpse of Life at the court of Whitehall. The Bullens were dressed in dark reds, blues and greens, in velvet and rich brocades and in Sir Richard's case, plenty of lace. Sir Richard and Pierce both need full periWigs. These were hired locally.

PROPS

A large number of props were needed, and like the furniture, they had to look authentic. We made pistols, chessmen, iron bound chests, piles of provisions, sacks of flour, kegs of fish, and a ham, as well as s~all items like s snuff box, jewellery, tally board, pomander, etc. Attention to detail was

meticulous. A cavalry sword of the period posed a problem. It has to be angrily and noisily flung into the hearth at one point. A wooden one obviously would not do. After many telephone calls we managed to track down and borrow the real thing from the local Sealed Knot.

SUMMARY

A number of our patrons cxpre,sed surprise that such a good play had never been in print. They recognised what wonderful opportunities it provided for the actors. There is not a weak part in it. Everyone had the chance to 'd ress up' and get their teeth into rich dialogtIe with a strong sense of period.

From the production point of view, the script has to be handled very carefully. It could oh so easily become hilarious melodrama. Indeed, it descended into that at our first read through, but when the cast realised the strong plot and dramatic opportunities, there was a change of heart. We had to treild a fine line and I was constantly aWilre of the need to underplay a lot of the dialogue. Dramatic moments could so eaSily have become cornic.

As both producer and designer, I was in the unique position of knowing exactly how I wanted everything to look as well as sound, able to create an homogenous fusion of colour, light, sound and movement.

It was technically very demanding. I have already mentioned our problems with candles. This was no problem in 1958 when we used real ones. The set itself must not only look solid , but be solid. Conventional flats would be barely adequate. At one point, Jonathan goes round banging on walls, proclaiming, "You'll get no answer but the echo of these walls! They're stone - and thick. Beat on 'em and see." We were fortunate to acquire a quantity of 2 x 4 timber from a dismantled roof and so were able to build a solid skeleton set which we supported with 'dexion' and filled in with hardboard. Thumping on strategic points where there was a 2 x 4 upright not only looked good but sounded effective too.

After many years of planning, postponements and frustrating delays, I have finally got this play out of my system. It was a huge artistic success, described by the local press as "a marvellous visual feast". With capacity audiences, it also made a healthy profit which will go towards equipment for our new lighting room to celebrate our Golden Jubilee this year.

17y 'UN