Theatre in World War II
The outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 inevitably caused serious problems. The Players' premises, on the top floor of an old building with a glass roof and a hydraulic lift, were not an ideal venue during an air-raid. Eventually, after two short-term arrangements (including a number of performances in a member's drawing-room in St. John's Wood), the Players' found a refuge in Albemarle Street in the former El Morocco nightclub. This was in a basement in one of the few concrete buildings in London. Thanks to this good fortune, the Players' (along with The Windmill) 'never closed' throughout the War.
Leonard Sachs was called up for military service and (riding in a taxi to Waterloo to join his troop train) he made over the Players' Theatre Club to Jean Anderson, already an established actress and Players' artiste. Jean contrived to keep the Club open and solvent for the next five years, before going on to a very distinguished career both on stage and on television in series such as 'Tenko' and 'The Brothers'. Under her management, the Players' became a haven for Londoners suffering the Blitz, as well as a home from home for many of the allied forces also living in London.
Americans, Australians, Canadians, Czechs, Danes, Dutch, the Free French, Indians, New Zealanders, Norwegians, Poles, Rhodesians, South Africans — all were to be found among the Players' audience. Indeed, to this day, every Players' audience usually contains a number of 'visitors from abroad' who are duly greeted and teased. In addition, nearly every Sunday saw a contingent of Players' artistes entertain in hospitals, at gun-sites and searchlight emplacements. James Robertson Justice made his debut as Chairman and launched his film career at this time.
Read more about this topic: Players' Theatre
Famous quotes containing the words theatre, world and/or war:
“Art is for [the Irish] inseparable from artifice: of that, the theatre is the home. Possibly, it was England made me a novelist.”
—Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)
“You become a reader because you saw and heard someone you admired enjoying the experience, someone led you to the world of books even before you could read, let you taste the magic of stories, took you to the library, and allowed you to stay up later at night to read in bed.”
—Jim Trelease (20th century)
“What war has always been is a puberty ceremony. It’s a very rough one, but you went away a boy and came back a man, maybe with an eye missing or whatever but godammit you were a man and people had to call you a man thereafter.”
—Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (b. 1922)