In this blog post, we delve into the world of New Perspectives productions that have that explore fairytale characters and stories, the supernatural or paranormal, or reimagine historical figures.

Though the productions below were performed from the 1970s to the 1990s, these themes also carried through into a further 2 decades with productions such as A Fortunate Man (2019), In Search of Pontiflunk (2008), The Ghost Downstairs (2004) and The Honey Man (2012). All of which have been included in previous NP Rewind blog posts which you can read here.

These productions are part of our 50^th anniversary postcard collection that is currently on sale on our online shop.

 

4 Square (1976)

As many early Perspectives productions, 4 Square was a Christmas show designed for children. The show was made up of stories dreamed up by children in theatre workshops held by the company in schools which created eccentric characters such as Tilly Bonk the Tea Girl and Zippy the Green-Haired Clown.

An article with the Eastern Daily Press from 1977 about the production said that “the group […] have perfected a formula for holding the attention of young children who are rarely catered for on the live stage”. In the same article, director Colin Hicks said: “We make the show as magical as we can – the children’s imagination does the rest.”

 

The Merrie Englande Murders by Jonathan Neale (1988)

The Merrie Englande Murders by Johnathan Neale was a play about an oppressive employer and hard-pressed workers, but it also brought to the stage a variety of unusual characters from real life and fable, including miners, football hooligans, Morris dancers and characters from Robin Hood.

In a review from the Recorder Free Press in February 1988, Yvonne Hamon said: “I was still left a bit puzzled as to who actually did the murders!”

 

All Souls’ Eve by Nona Shepphard (1991)

“It is All Souls’ Eve, […] a time for trickery and disguise,” the programme for the production read.

All Souls’ Eve was based on characters, stories, rhymes and traditions from Lancashire and Cheshire. The play fused folk tales such as the Wizard of Alderney Edge with real-life characters and stories from the region including legendary Cheshire prophet Robert Nixon and Elizabeth Southerns who died in prison after being accused of witchcraft.

  

The Devils Only Sleeping by Nick Stafford (1990)

17 years prior to adapting War Horse by Michael Morpurgo, playwright Nick Stafford wrote The Devil’s Only Sleeping, a play set in a small village in the East Midlands which examined the nature of evil and followed Barton who goes back to the home of his dead brother after 17 years in prison for a murder he believes his brother committed.

A review in the Chad said: “It presents unique ideas, successfully combining supernatural mystery with intimate family tragedy and prejudice”.

The company had only recently at that point gone through a restructure that saw the arrival of their first Artistic Director Helen White after being a co-operative for many years (read our blog post here about the funding crisis that brought about the restructure). The Chad also remarked that “if it is a taste of things to come from the relatively new company, it should be looking forward to a flourishing future”.

 

Twice Upon a time (1974/5)

Twice Upon a Time was the second in a series of Christmas shows for 3-7 year olds, with the first installment being called – you guessed it! – Once Upon a Time. The production was a road safety campaign disguised by the story of a friendly giant who is new to earth and trying to safely make his way around town.

Made up reviews for the production included: “Breathtaking” (The Daily Dragon), “Mystifying” (The Weekly Wizard”), and “A crowning success!!” (Kings Chronicle). But, a real review from the Peterborough Advertiser commented that the piece “wrapped up everyday incidents with imagination and fairytale charm”.

 

Creature – A Horror Party by Bryony Lavery (1992)

In Creature – A Horror Party, a double-booked hall hosts both a Luckywear Party and a paranormal lecture which leads to “a weird and wonderful night of spooky, fun entertainment when luck and the supernatural rubbed shoulders”. The play was described by the Chad as “the extreme of community theatre when the unsuspecting showgoer becomes the star and the play becomes the party.”

What Creature turned out to be, wasn't originally the play Bryony Lavery had been commissioned to write. In a letter about the original play from writer Bryony Lavery to Artistic Director at the time Helen White, she wrote: “I can’t give a flavour of the text […] but it will of course be very funny […] not twee […and] about the qualities this f*cking society does not value or celebrate”.

 

Mrs Beeton’s History of the World by Julie Wilkinson (1990)

Mrs Beeton’s History of the World was a ‘cuisine of social history’ that played on the prominent Victorian figure of Mrs Beeton. At the beginning of the play, Mrs Beeton and her maid are already dead but are brought back to earth to create a sequel to her ‘Book of Household Management’ from 1861 which is one of the most famous cookery books ever published.

In Contemporary Theatre Review, Volume 6, the play was included in an article looking at Subversions Playing with History in Women’s Theatre which said the play ‘use[d] comedy to take a look at history through a recipes-through-the-ages framing device’.

 

In the Bleak Midwinter by Charles Way (1994)

In the Bleak Midwinter by Charles Way was a nativity play that “centred around shepherd Zac, his wife Miriam and a baby son who palled up with Gill, the one-time girlfriend of thief Mak, on their way to Nazareth from somewhere near the ‘wilds of Northampton’”.

Sheila Slater in Chad said: “Unlike many nativity plays, however, these shepherds are real people with real problems, like hunger and poverty, who have difficulty sticking to their principles and dreaming their dreams, as life has a horrible way of dragging them down to earth.”

The Stage commented that “for a show billed as a heartwarming comedy for adults and children has some surprisingly sly allusions and certainly one scene of frightening violence”.