CAST
PRODUCTION
in order of speaking
OXENFORD
NESTROY
WILDER
In 1835, the English Dramatist John Oxenford
(1812—1877) wrote a one-act farce called A Day
Well Spent in which two shop assistants, Bolt and
Mizzle, decide to take the day off when their
employer, Cotton the hosier, has to go out on
business. Being a farce, they get into all kinds of
scrapes before finally returning to
the shop with Cotton none the wiser
as to their exploits. In addition to
his dramatic endeavours, Oxenford
was also a translator from German
and, indeed, wrote a treatise on
Schopenhauer which was translated
into German. Somehow, Oxenford’s
farce found its way into the hands
of
the
celebrated
Viennese
playwright Johann Nestroy (1801—
1862) and in 1842 he adapted it into
the musical play Einen Jux will er
sich Machen (He Will Go On A
Spree or He’ll Have Himself A
Good Time). Nestroy was a lifelong
singer and most of his dramatic
works incorporated music and
songs. The music for Einen Jux was
written by Adolf Müller and during
his career Nestroy also used music by Karl Binder
and Jacques Offenbach, amongst others.
You might think that that was the end of the
story… but no! In 1938 Nestroy’s play was seized
upon by the American Pulitzer Prize-winning
dramatist Thornton Wilder (1897—1975), who
turned it into The Merchant of Yonkers, which
revolves around Horace Vandergelder, a
wealthy New York businessman in the market for
a wife. The production was not a great success and
closed after just 39 performances. Wilder did not
HERMAN
STOPPARD
give up, though. In 1954, at the behest of Tyrone
Guthrie, he revised the play and renamed it The
Matchmaker. It had its première at the Edinburgh
Festival and later transferred to Broadway, where
it enjoyed a rather more respectable run of 486
performances! The play was made into a film in
1958, starring Shirley Booth as Dolly
Levi and also featuring Anthony
Perkins and Shirley MacLaine.
But there was life yet in the
chequered history of Oxenford’s
little farce. Following the success of
The Matchmaker on stage and
screen, Jerry Herman’s (b. 1931)
musical version, Hello Dolly, hit the
Broadway stage in 1964, starring
Carol Channing, and for a time
enjoyed the accolade of being the
longest
running
musical
in
Broadway history, piling up an
impressive 2,844 performances! The
inevitable film version, starring
Barbra Streisand, followed in 1969.
Twelve years flash past and - hey
presto! - finally we arrive at Tom
Stoppard’s (b. 1937) free adaptation of Nestroy’s
play with the first performance of On The Razzle
at, by a neat twist, a production by the National
Theatre in 1981 at the Edinburgh International
Festival, from where it subsequently transferred to
the South Bank.
Phew! And there (at least for the time being) you
have it. Mr Oxenford - step forward and take a
bow, sir!
Zangler
Gertrud
Marie
Sonders
Foreigner
Melchior
Hupfer
Christopher
Weinberl
Philippine
Madame Knorr
Mrs Fischer
Italian Waiter
Coachman
Head Waiter
German Man
German Woman
Scottish Man
Scottish Woman
Constable
Miss Blumenblatt
Lisette
Waiter/Ragamuffin
Robert Sheppard
Barbara Tresidder
Hana Bird
Michael Thonger
Evelyn Morgan
Dom Gwyther
Steffen Zschaler
Claire Racklyeft
Jason Orbaum
Louise Johnson
Gilly Fick
Kathryn Attwood
Steffen Zschaler
Graham Russell-Price
Mark Williams
Steffen Zschaler
Ally Murphy
Eddie Woolrich
Barbara Tresidder
Eddie Woolrich
Pam Hemelryk
Louise Johnson
Jordan Gunner
Director & Designer
Costumier
Composer
Sound
Lighting
Stage Manager
Production Manager
Properties
Publicity
Graphic Design
Set Construction
and Painting
Set Dressing
Prompt
Lighting Desk
Seamstresses
SETTING
Fin de Siècle Vienna
The action of the play takes place variously in
Zangler’s shop, Mme Knorr’s fashion house, the
Imperial Gardens Café and Miss Blumenblatt’s
apartment.
ASMs
There will be one interval of twenty minutes.
Programme
Photography
Transport
Ian Nichols
Diane Nichols
Andrew Donovan
Simon Price
Robert Sheppard
Rosemary Chapman
Michael Burne
Jane Hampton
Tessa Duggleby
Gilly Fick
Claire Racklyeft
Laura Sheppard
Phill Griffith
Michael Burne
Mike Dean
Kevin Malam
Ian Parkinson
Jonathan Poole
Graham Russell-Price
Eddie Woolrich
Cheryl Malam
Catherine Smart
Oli Bruce
Elizabeth Burton
Rosemary Chapman
Julie Judge
Catherine Smart
Barbara Tresidder
and Company Milliners
Howard Benbrook
Michael Burne
Maddy Collins
Ally Murphy
Robert Sheppard
Ian Nichols
Phill Griffith
Michael Burne
Adam Sniptov
Vienna had created the waltz dance which, around this time, became known as the Viennese waltz to
distinguish it from the other waltzes it had spawned around the world. But it also thrilled to rag time. The
city embraced the new and exciting - the glittering gold of Gustav Klimt's decorative artwork and the
shock of Egon Schiele's near pornographic draughtsmanship, the shockingly reformed clothing designs of
Emilie Flöge, the revolutionary design of everything from the Secession building to the startling new
furniture. The city fell in love with all that was innovative and the habitually sedate and traditional was
turned on its head by a stimulating tide of modernity.
Ian Nichols examines the history of cross gender acting
You either will, or already have discovered that in this production the role of Christopher
is played by a young lady. This is not a whim of this particular director but takes its lead
from the original production at the National Theatre when Felicity Kendal played the
part. That adaptation of Johann Nestroy's 1842 play, in turn, played homage to the
original material, which followed a long tradition in Viennese drama of cross gender
casting for some comic roles. So, quite a history in its own right!
But this, of course, was not the beginning of cross gender acting. In Ancient Greece all
the female roles were played by men, as indeed they were in English Renaissance theatre
and continued to be so right up to Margaret Hughes boldly making the first appearance
on stage of a female actor in 1660.
Shakespeare's comedies Twelfth Night and As You Like It depend on the confusion
arising from the 'breeches roles' where girls disguise themselves as boys Of course, the
confusion was all the greater as, at that time, young ladies were played by pubescent boys
and hence, a boy playing a girl was pretending to be a boy!
Cross gender acting refers to an actress or actor, not pretending, but portraying a
character of the opposite gender. In general, young actresses play a variety of young male
roles whereas men playing women are frequently grotesques. This is, of course,
epitomised in pantomime where the gender swap provides us traditionally with the
'Principal Boy' and the 'Dame' figures. The grotesque can also be seen in Dustin
Hoffman's ‘Tootsie’, Robin Williams’ ‘Mrs Doubtfire’ or even Barry Humphries' ‘Dame
Edna’.
Shakespearean drama has had a relatively recent resurgence of gender crossing
performance. In the 18C Sarah Siddons was the first, but not the last, actress to decide
that the part of Hamlet was too good just to be left to male actors. When Sarah Bernhardt
controversially played the Prince in 1899 her performance gave rise to a duel. More
recently a whole gamut of actresses have queued for the opportunity, from Frances de la
Tour to Maxine Peake. Nor has it stopped there. Vanessa Redgrave has given her
Prospero, Fiona Shaw, Cate Blanchett and Kathryn Hunter their rendition of both
Richard II and III. Hunter is also the first actress to have portrayed Lear. Now Glenda
Jackson is giving us hers.
Nor is the traffic one way: from Ronald Pickup's Rosalind to Mark Rylance stepping into
Cleopatra's crown and gown. But this is not even to mention those all male companies
like Propeller and Cheek by Jowl or the all-female casts of Henry VI and Julius Caesar!
Is there no end to it? Well,
probably not. As theatres have
adopted colour blind casting so,
increasingly, they are accepting
gender blindness. The tradition
is long and well established.
Meanwhile, in On the Razzle, we
merely have one actress in a
'breeches role.' But fear not, the
panto season is already with us!
Produced by special arrangement with Samuel French Ltd.
Yet Tom Stoppard, one assumes with tongue firmly in his cheek, turns the passion for fashion into the fad
for everything tartan! Now that really is a little facetious, Mr Stoppard, but - we will take you at your
word!
rehearsal photos by Phill Griffith