The Sea
About the Production
Set in 1907, The Sea depicts a small coastal village in East Anglia, sharply divided between ruthless order and rampant chaos. After a beloved resident of the village drowns in a storm at sea, the differing reactions of the villagers reveal a community torn apart by disputes and disorder. Willy Carson, the survivor of the tragic boating accident, stays in the village to grieve for his friend and finds himself entrapped within a hierarchical community presided over by the domineering Mrs. Rafi. Mrs. Rafi lives in the big house and represents order and respectability, surrounding herself with the twittering ladies of the village. Leading the official grieving, she finds herself at odds with the local draper, Hatch, who is continuously rebuffed and put out of pocket by the Grande Dame. Eccentric, or possibly even deranged, Hatch believes that aliens have infiltrated the village from another planet. He identifies Willy Carson’s sudden appearance in the village as proof of the aliens’ arrival and establishes a taskforce to spy on Willy and the wise village drunk, Evens. In a mad rage, Hatch feverishly attacks the washed up corpse of the drowned man with a knife, mistakenly believing it to be Willy sleeping on the beach. In the middle of this madness, Willy encounters Rose Jones, the fiancée of his dead companion. United in their grief, the couple begin to realize that their only hope of moving forwards is to escape from the claustrophobic community and make a life somewhere else. Evens tells Willy he will never find the answers he seeks in the village, and so Willy and Rose board a train and leave the chaos and bitterness far behind.
Edward Bond was born and educated in London. After completing his National Service with the Army (part of the occupation forces stationed in Vienna), and then various jobs, he joined the Playwright’s Workshop at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in June 1958, and his first play, ‘The Pope’s Wedding’, was staged in 1962. He has subsequently written ‘Saved’, ‘Narrow Road To The Deep North’ (presented by TWC in November 1970), ‘Early Morning’, ‘Lear’, and ‘Bingo’. His adaptation of Frank Wedekind’s play ‘Spring Awakening’ was staged by the National Theatre in May 1974 directed by Peter Hall. He has also worked on a number of film screenplays, including ‘Blow Up’, ‘Walkabout’ and ‘Nicholas and Alexandra’.
‘The Sea’ was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre on 22 May 1973, with a cast that included Ian Holm (as Hatch) Diana Quick as Rose Jones and Coral Browne as Mrs Rafi, and directed by William Gaskill. By special arrangement with the author, Theatre Workshop Coulsdon is the first amateur company to perform the play.
The Cast
Behind the Scenes
Image Gallery
The Reviews
Life goes on
If a playwright has to devote his last scene to a lengthy explanation of his philosophy, there is something wrong somewhere. And if that philosophy could be expressed in the three words “Life Goes On” and moreover does not bear too much relation to the preceding action, you might go so far as to decide it was a bad play.
On the contrary, “The Sea” by Edward Bond last week proved an excellent vehicle for Theatre Workshop Coulsdon to express their varied talents and to entertain a disappointingly small audience.
As a mad draper convinced (in 1907) that the world was being taken over by beings from other planets, Stephen Swinscoe gave a fine baroque display of neurosis, delusions of grandeur competing with the ingrained subservience of the Edwardian shopkeeper. Standing for conservatism, the upper classes and the old order, Lesley Argles could have put a little more commanding self-assurance into her voice. Her paid companion was played by Rosemary Quin with the nuances of insufferable decayed gentility very well gauged. Their bevy of hangers-on produced good vignettes from Diana Hewett, Sue Guiver and Liz Sutton. Sarah Berwick was an appealing bereaved young fiancée.
Christopher Argles had a certain insight into the part of the eccentric outcast, which character was all too evidently Bond’s mouthpiece. He delivers himself of a pretentious longwinded bit of simple philosophy to the boy saved when his companion was drowned. He is so cheered up that he goes off with the bereaved fiancée, and they all live happily ever after, only it seemed a bit contrived.
The draper’s adherents, manifestly of the Lower Classes, were standard shambling yokels (Keith Walton, Tim Young and Cliff Palmer) who return to the ways of righteousness and their destined places after the brief revolt. The revolt and the tragedy are portrayed in a kind of alternating counterpoint. The ladies rehearse a shatteringly awful play, while the two young people are completely absorbed in their own sorrow. The draper furiously chops up lengths of beautiful blue cloth in a defiant gesture supposed to force Madam into buying it. The most farcical scene is the clifftop funeral where Tim Andrew resurrected every comic Vicar there ever was. In the ensuing free-for-all the ashes of the deceased are flung over everybody in macabre slapstick.
These differing paces and moods were extremely well conveyed in Roger Keightley’s planned, cohesive production. Sound effects and lighting were so realistic, one longed for oil-cloths and a lightning conductor.
Reviewed by J.M.A. For The Croydon Advertiser, Friday July 19th, 1974
An Amateur Drama Honours List
1973 – 74 was a season of many revivals and few experiments
Back to the ‘Good Old Days’ has again been the motto of most of our dramatic societies in the 1973-74 season just ended.
But, happily, the period hasn’t been all revivals and refurbishings. The prize for being really ‘with it’ must go to Roger Keightley and Theatre Workshop – Coulsdon for staging Edward Bond’s very recent play, ‘The Sea’. Alas, as the colleague who reviewed it so noted, it was poorly patronised. And this in an area with as many dramatic clubs as ours! I was on holiday when it was presented, but was able to watch an advanced rehearsal and very promising it looked.
Then for their 50th anniversary, Chipstead Players…
Gwendolen Pearson for the Croydon Advertiser, Friday August 16, 1974
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