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MARTINS BANK PLAYERS (NORTH EASTERN)

Martins Bank Players (North Eastern) The Secret Tent by Elizabeth Addyman

Staged: 17 to 19 November 1966 at The little theatre Gateshead

Martins Bank’s North Eastern Players stage a production of of Elizabeth Addyman’s “The Secret Tent” over three nights in November 1966 at Gateshead’s Little Theatre. This play was previously staged in London by Martins Bank’s Cicala Players in 1962. Despite what are described as “reasonable” audience figures by Martins Bank Magazine, disappointment is expressed that the house was not packed on all three nights, as the performances were felt to have been extremely good, with the interest of the audience held at every moment.

Particular mention is given to North Eastern Players stalwart Ayleen Read, whose performance gripped those watching and brought tears to the eyes of some with its sincerity and realism. This is another production directed by Nora Wilkie who by now has many successes under her belt.

elizabeth addyman's The Secret Tent is a three-act play with a cast of seven. There are several hundred such plays but few which present such a tremendous challenge to a producer and, in this case, her cast. Nora Wilkie achieved a triumph with this production by the North Eastern Players at the Little Theatre, Gateshead, from November 17 to 19. Those who failed to attend must have felt frustrated when colleagues having seen it reported on the following morning 'Well you missed something good'. Support these days for amateur productions is often uncertain and, while attendances at this production were reasonable, we must admit to a feeling of surprise that an on-target District like this managed only to score an 'outer' on ticket sales. But there it is. We all make mistakes. The Secret Tent is high drama and there are no prosy interchanges of talk. Momentum must be kept up and, in addition, it is a busy play with something happening all the time. The timing of words and actions must have involved the cast in exhausting hours of toil imposed by their task-mistress. It paid off handsomely.
Jim Lindsay and Ayleen Read		The play opens with such a typical domestic scene—a husband and wife having got the children to bed—that one has no inkling of the things to come. Only as the play develops do doubts unfold about the past life of the attractive young wife and mother, Ruth Martyn, played with feeling and sincerity by Ayleen Read. Apart from the major role of the husband there were two minor male parts: the rustic innocent (Alf Grummett), loyal to Ruth Martyn and arriving on the scene primarily in the hope of getting his beer ration—a traditional village idiot part—was played with the right touch of genuinely troubled befuddlement.
The other role, that of Inspector Thornton, brought from David Herriott a nice blend of compassion and determination in finding the truth behind some highly misleading facts. Jim Lindsay coped admirably as the ex-service chicken-farmer husband, five years married to a woman he thinks the world of but of whose earlier life he knows next to nothing. The part taxed his resourcefulness to the full yet he maintained the feeling of nervous tension and mental strain for the necessary three-quarters of the play.
Nancy Watson and Margaret Crump	That he succeeded so well is doubly praiseworthy since the women ruled this play. From the start Nancy Watson as his mother never for one moment gave the impression she was acting: in diction and changes of mood and pace she was faultless. Her bete noir, the mild, gossiping Miss Mitchum-Browne—a genuine 'our dear vicar' type dropping innuendoes like mothballs—was effectively and realistically brought to life by Margaret Crump. As the headmistress of an approved school, introduced by the Inspector to convince a disbelieving husband and mother-in-law of the wife's seamy past, Gwen Surtees showed sympathy blended with a kindly yet matter-of-fact determination to make them face reality.		Alf Grummett and David Herriott
To return for a moment to Ayleen Read, whose loyalty to her black-sheep brother was behind all her misfortunes, her finest contribution came in the last moments of the play with the realisation that her past was known and that her husband's love and respect for her had apparently been killed. Such was the effect of her acting that some of the older generation in the audience actually reached for their handkerchiefs. This production won the praises of all who saw it and were able to appreciate the hard work involved and the exhausting task of maintaining peak interest for nearly three hours. Behind the scenes Bob Wilkie and Derek Bates did their bit in ensuring that interest never flagged for a moment.

M