Oh Lord, I hear you groan, not another of his ego trips, how lovely, another chapter from the distinguished thespian history of our host - er, I did hear that right, didn't I? Anyway, here I am playing the part of Aubrey Tanqueray, the, er, 'hero' of Sir Arthur Wing Pinero's excellent play, The Second Mrs. Tanqueray. I should add at this point that all the plays in which I involved myself either as actor or director were always 'excellent' for the simple reason that as an amateur I could pick and choose. How I pity the pros who needs must take what is offered however dire!
The play was written in 1893 and, as this pose demonstrates so well, Aubrey Tanqueray is a frightfully proper, upper-class, English tit of the first order!
Actually, that is a little unkind. As I remember it, he was a decent man, a widower with one daughter, who marries a fundamentally decent younger woman who is, alas for those Victorian times, besmirched by her doubtful 'past'. This dread secret hangs over their newly married lives but comes to a head when the daughter announces her engagement to the man who was responsible for her loss of reputation. It is she who then does the 'decent thing', by Victorian standards, that is, and kills herself.
It all sounds rather corny but Pinero was a master-craftsman when it comes to constructing a play. Done right, this is a terrific night at the theatre. Did we do it right? I 'dunno' - only the suckers punters who paid for their tickets could tell you that!
Anyway, either before or after that performance (I can't remember which), I took what for me was a real risk by auditioning for a part in a bitter, cynical and devastating satire on the English, upper middle-classes by Noel Coward whose entire life was spent trying to emulate them! He, like me, was a lower-middle-class boy, funnily enough, born and bred in Teddington which is only just down the road from my Twickenham Theatre Club. I knew a little bit about him and his plays and because they were all performed - quite correctly - in that drawling Mayfair-style accent which I detested and which made me detest his work without, of course, actually knowing that much about them.
This particular play was Hay Fever, written in 1924 and featuring four of the most ghastly people you could ever wish to avoid - the Bliss family ("Bliss" - geddit?). They are mother, father, son and daughter and in what we quickly learn is their own inimitable style they have each invited a guest, of the opposite sex - natch! - to the family home for a weekend without bothering to tell the others. Needless to say, with an equal - natch! - the four rotters instantly forget their own guest and go after another. Here is David Bliss (me!) making moves on his son's guest!
You may recognise the lady, the long-suffering Mo Pompini who had to put up with my clumsy advances whilst playing in The Last of the Red Hot Lovers - God, that girl suffered for her art! Anyway, yet again I was proved absolutely wrong in my ignorance because working on Coward's play I realised what a wickedly witty master of satire he was!
So here endeth the 7th lesson, only two more to go and then you can all relax!
David, as Bliss, you seem quite determined. The poor, doubting lady in your sights seems equally determined. Nice stage sets in both photos. I assume these shots of you are a few years old and you are still just as dashing and commanding a presence?
Posted by: Whitewall | Friday, 14 August 2015 at 15:44
That's 'on stage', Whiters', alas, 'off stage' I remain the same shuffling, grumpy, old git I have been since I was about fourteen!
Posted by: David Duff | Friday, 14 August 2015 at 16:35
Well, I just showed this 7th installment to Mrs. Whitewall. Your reply has crushed her to the point that she is about to have her first bloody mary 2 hours early. Ahh, retirement!
Posted by: Whitewall | Friday, 14 August 2015 at 16:46
Bless her sensible cotton socks, tell her to have another one - on me!
Posted by: David Duff | Friday, 14 August 2015 at 16:48
Bliss family? Surely that is mis-spelt and that should be Blair family ? Which take over a middle east country amd kill 250000 people?
Still, you look very handsome mich more so than Tony!
Posted by: Cuffleyburgers | Friday, 14 August 2015 at 21:52
Is that your own mustache or do you buy them in bulk?
And furthermore, I believe that orange gown has been a curtain in a previous life.
Still, you were definitely a handsome fellow. And then came the long johns!
Posted by: Andra | Friday, 14 August 2015 at 22:18
I don't know about the 'handsome', Cuffers, but I wish I had even 10% of his ill-gotten gains!
I'm delighted to say, Andra, that the moustache is mine. My alopecia had more or less cleared and I had just about enough standing whiskers to produce that effort. But 'stick around, kid, you ain't seen nuttin' yet' until my next theatrical memoir in which my eye-brows won an acting award!
Posted by: David Duff | Saturday, 15 August 2015 at 08:09