Martins Bank Players (North Eastern) - 1939 The Late Christopher Bean

MARTINS BANK PLAYERS (NORTH EASTERN)

Martins Bank Players (North Eastern) in: The Late Christopher Bean by Emlyn Williams

Staged: 9 March 1939 at the Little Theatre Jesmond

For their 1939 production “The Late Christopher Bean”, a three-act comedy by Emlyn Williams, the North Eastern Players are photographed (below, left) busy rehearsing at Jesmond’s Little Theatre, in a very short article published in the local newspaper, the Newcastle Evening Chronicle. The picture is taken on 9 March 1939, which is also the opening night for the production. The next day, the newspaper publishes a further short piece by way of a review of the first night’s performance (below, right) and does not hold back on praise for three of the nine actors.

It is wonderful to be able to trace these precious reminders of the early work of the North Eastern Players, and original programmes and tickets for these productions do still occasionally appear for sale on internet auction sites. We have been fortunate enough to have acquired a number of them for the Archive, enabling more “gaps” to be filled in the social history of the Bank’s Staff, and their strong desire to “put on a show”. If you have programmes, tickets or photographs for any production staged by one of Martins Bank’s Operatic or Dramatic societies, and would like either to donate or send them in for scanning and return, please do get in touch with us at the usual address: martinsbankarchive@btinternet.com.

1939 The Late Christopher Bean Rehearsal - MBA 2

Images © Trinity Mirror - created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD - reproduced with kind permission of The British Newspaper Archive