EDUCATION PACK

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Wilkie Collins: The Dramatist . Page 10 ,. Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens . Page 11 ,. Who was the original Woman in White? EDUCATION PACK PART 2:.
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CONTENTS EDUCATION PACK PART 1: BACKGROUND . Page 4 , The story of The Woman in White - Synopsis: Act One . Page 6 , The story of The Woman in White - Synopsis: Act Two . Page 8 , Wilkie Collins: The Man . Page 9 , Wilkie Collins: The Dramatist . Page 10 , Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens . Page 11 , Who was the original Woman in White? EDUCATION PACK PART 2: THE PRODUCTION . Page 14 , Interview with Andrew Lloyd Webber (Composer) . Page 16 , Woman in White’s steps to the stage - with Charlotte Jones (Book) . Page 18 , Interview with William Dudley (Set & Video Designer) . Page 19 , Looking at a scene in detail . Page 23 , Interview with Daniel Kramer (Associate Director) . Page 25 , Interview with Margie Bailey (Costume Supervisor) . Page 27 , Interview with Simon Lee (Musical Supervisor) EDUCATION PACK PART 3: PRACTICAL EXERCISES FOR TEACHERS & STUDENTS . Page 29 , Introduction . Page 30 , Before you go . Page 31 , After your visit . Page 34 , A different perspective for English and History teachers . Page 35 , A teacher’s view of The Woman in White

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PART 1: BACKGROUND

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THE STORY OF THE WOMAN IN WHITE SYNOPSIS: ACT ONE A dashing young man, Walter Hartright, is on his way to take up the post of drawing master at Limmeridge House, Cumberland, when his night train breaks down and he becomes stranded at a remote railway cutting. Waiting to be collected he encounters a mysterious woman dressed in white, desperate to share a chilling secret, but apparently unable to trust anyone. On the arrival of his carriage the woman disappears. Walter is greeted on his arrival by the plain looking Marian Halcombe, one of the nieces of his employer Mr Fairlie. She explains that she and her extremely attractive half-sister Laura are very close and that as she is the older of the two, feels very motherly towards her younger sibling. On meeting Laura, Walter is struck by how closely she resembles the woman he met at the railway cutting and tells the sisters of his adventure. They all agree that they should clear up the mystery of The Woman In White. During the summer of drawing lessons it becomes apparent that both Marian and Laura have developed feelings for Walter and that Walter has fallen for Laura. As Laura and Walter struggle to keep their emotion in check, Marian becomes aware of the growing relationship between the two of them. Returning from a drawing lesson the three get caught up in the village’s harvest festival celebrations. At the church a young girl tells Walter that she has seen a ghost in the churchyard and he goes to investigate.

Sir Percival, a charming man, arrives at Limmeridge House the next day and suggests that the previously agreed Spring wedding be brought forward, to Christmas. Laura is reticent to agree, but at the insistence of Marian that Sir Percival is all she could want in a husband, she acquiesces. Sir Percival’s arrival is swiftly followed by that of his friend and best man the charismatic Count Fosco, an Italian gentleman of considerable size and personality. He is very taken with Marian and at dinner entertains the assembled family and friends and toasts the happy couple. Suddenly, Walter interrupts the proceedings and accuses Glyde of ill-treating the woman in white, Anne Catherick. Glyde offers an explanation which Fosco and Mr Fairlie applaud, although Walter is not convinced by Glyde’s story or Fosco and Fairlie’s enthusiastic acceptance of the tale . Marian tells him to leave, and that nothing will stop Laura marrying Sir Percival. He agrees to go but at his departure Laura appears and reaffirms her love for him, giving him a sketch of herself he had drawn earlier that Summer. Laura and Glyde’s wedding at the local church is briefly interrupted by an anguished scream of a woman, but soon the ceremony is over and the couple leave for their honeymoon. The woman in white appears again and swears that she will save the new Lady Glyde from her own fate at the hands of her betrayer, she leaves Limmeridge for Glyde’s estate - Blackwater House, Hampshire.

Suddenly the woman in white appears. She tells Walter that her name is Anne Catherick and that she has been severely ill-treated and put in an asylum by a man named Sir Percival Glyde. Taking fright, she disappears and Walter is left, shocked and alone.

The couple return from their honeymoon to the waiting Marian and Fosco and it becomes clear that something is wrong, as Laura runs into the house without a word. Marian goes to Laura’s room where Laura, bitterly angry with Marian for advising her to marry Glyde, announces that her husband wants only her money and that he beats her.

Before Walter can tell either Marian and Laura about the encounter, Marian upsets Walter further by telling him that Laura is engaged to be married at the dying request of her father. He is more horrified to discover that Laura’s fiancé is Sir Percival Glyde.

Marian is devastated and struggles to come to terms with what has happened. She walks into the woods and is greeted by Anne Catherick, the woman in white. Anne tells Marian she will help her save Laura, by revealing the secret she has, if they both meet at the same place the next day.

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The following day, Sir Percival Glyde, in front of Fosco and Marian, threatens Laura with violence, when she refuses to sign an unknown document. Fosco persuades Glyde to leave Laura alone for a while, but Marian and Laura are now very worried by the situation they appear to be in. Marian takes Laura to the meeting with Anne Catherick and Laura is amazed by their likeness. As they all begin to trust that they will be able to

change the situation together they are interrupted by the sound of men and dogs. The woman in white is terrified, believing the sisters have betrayed her and though she tries to escape she is captured. Count Fosco and Glyde appear and as Fosco sedates her, he tells the sisters that it is for Anne’s own good that she is returned to the asylum from which she escaped. Not believing anything they have been told the sisters become determined to right this terrible wrong.

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Jill Paice as Laura Fairlie, Oliver Darley as Sir Percival Glyde and Michael Crawford as Count Fosco. Original production photography by Manual Harlan

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THE STORY OF THE WOMAN IN WHITE SYNOPSIS: ACT TWO Laura is distraught and Marian unable to bear her sister’s unhappiness leaves her alone in her room to try and find out what Glyde and Fosco are planning. Knowing that they are in the upstairs Library Marian creeps along the outside balconies to the library windows and eavesdrops on their conversation. A storm begins and Marian only hears portions of the plan to get Laura’s money and discovers only that Fosco has documents about Anne Catherick’s incarceration which he promises to keep safe at his London home. Shivering with wet and cold Marian returns to her own room but her presence is heard by Fosco who goes to her rooms to check on her. Finding her shivering (having been caught outside in the rain whilst walking) her prescribes a sleeping draught. Marian falls asleep but has a terrible dream, in which all the events of the past year torment her. When she wakes, she senses all is not well. Confirming her fears, Count Fosco enters and tells her that Laura, while sleep-walking, fell from an open window to her death. Marian collapses. As Fosco helps her to recover he confirms he is leaving for London and her gives her a card should she ever need him. Laura’s funeral is held at Limmeridge Church. Sir Percival Glyde appearing grief-stricken is ignored by Marian and asks Mr Fairlie if papers can be signed immediately. Horrified at the idea Mr Fairlie makes Glyde agree to wait until June. Marian, at the graveside promises that she will find Walter to help her get justice. Walter is in London and down on his luck. He takes the sketch of Laura from his bag and it is clear he is still in love with her. Yet to survive, he is forced to pawn the picture,deciding that they were never meant to be. Marian arrives in London and is quite overwhelmed by her surroundings. Asking around for Walter Hartright, she falls victim to a conman and is robbed of most of her belongings. Degraded and alone, she wanders the streets. Suddenly she sees Laura’s portrait in the window of the pawnbroker’s. For the price of her coat and

bag she redeems the picture, and goes in search of the artist. Finding his rooms, she sinks down in despair as Walter arrives home, drunk. He is not pleased to see her, he has heard the news of Lady Glyde’s death and wants to just drown his sorrows. Marian asks if he can forgive her for her mistrust of his motives and begs that he help her find prove Glyde’s guilt in Laura’s death. Moved by her pleading he agrees to help her, suggesting that it is the woman in white who holds the key to Glyde’s guilt. Marian explains that Count Fosco has documents about Anne and that she knows Fosco would be pleased to see here at his London home. Meanwhile, Sir Percival is already gambling with Laura’s money. At a Casino, Fosco and Glyde argue about money due and owed. Angry at Fosco, Glyde uses his winnings to pay him off, making it clear that their relationship is at an end. Fosco takes the money and leaves. Accompanied by Walter, Marian dressed very seductively, goes to Fosco’s chambers, determined to use her feminine wiles to trick the Count into revealing Anne’s whereabouts. Fosco is at his lodgings packing for his departure. He is pleasantly surprised when Marian is announced, and responds to her advances with enthusiasm. Asking him to shave before she kisses him, Marian takes advantage of his absence from the room to search for any clues. She finds the document she needs, but fails to replace it before he re-enters. Fosco becomes suspicious, as she tries to make her excuses to leave. He realises what has happened and asks her to return the document. She does so in fear for her safety, but Fosco , lets her go. He continues to pack and then leaves for the Continent. Now knowing that Anne is held at an asylum in Cumberland, Walter and Marian head north. They gain access to the asylum, pretending to be representatives of Sir Percival. Buoyed by their success and their closer relationship Marian is

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about to tell Walter of her feelings when the Nurse appears to take them to Anne Catherick. Marian approaches the woman but it is not Anne. It is Laura. The sisters fall into each other’s arms, and Walter sees his love is still alive. Together they realise what Glyde and Fosco have done. They agree that they must go to neighbouring Limmeridge House and make Mr Fairlie reveal what he knows about the story. When they get there, Sir Percival Glyde has just left with the signed documents giving him Laura’s money. When Walter and Marian enter, and

demand answers to the puzzle of the woman in white, he at first refuses to help. When Laura is revealed to him he tells them what he knows but that they will never catch Glyde. Laura then comes up with a plan to make Glyde reveal the truth. They catch him at the railway cutting where, playing the woman in white, Laura makes Glyde tell his story. It is Walter’s appearance that forces Glyde to run into the train tunnel which causes his death. Laura and Walter reunite, with Marian giving thanks that the mystery of the woman in white has been solved and justice served.

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Maria Friedman as Marian, Jill Paice as Laura and Martin Crewes as Walter Hartwright. Original production photography by Manual Harlan

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WILKIE COLLINS: THE MAN Graves and Martha Rudd. He is said to have met Caroline in north London in circumstances uncannily similar to the beginning of his novel The Woman in White. He met Martha in Norfolk when he was preparing his novel Armadale.

Wilkie Collins came from a family of painters and was expected to become one too. He grew up in Bayswater and Hampstead where his parents had a cottage not far from Constable’s. His father, William Collins RA, was already a popular painter of landscapes and seascapes and had already sold one of them to the Prince Regent (it hangs in St James’s Palace to this day). At the time his friend Constable was still having difficulty selling The Cornfield, now to be seen in the National Gallery. Wilkie’s younger brother Charles followed his father, becoming an artist and a close friend of the Pre-Raphaelites. Not so Wilkie. After five years in the tea-trade where, as he said later, he began to try his hand at “tragedies, comedies, epic poems and the usual literary rubbish”, he was called to the Bar. The scribbling went on, however, and, just before his father died, he had the pleasure of reading to him part of what was to be his first published novel. By his own determination he had broken free. It was a character trait that was a feature of Collins the man. In his private life and in his relations with others he made no attempt to conform. Not that he wanted to make a point; simply that he was always content with his own decisions. And those decisions were often at odds with social convention.

At the peak of his success as a writer Caroline was living with him, with her daughter Harriet, in Gloucester Place, while Martha was in a house with their own three children almost round the corner. The two mistresses never met and his friends were simply left to respond to the Wilkie Collins situation. Their wives would invite him to dinner but would not enter Gloucester Place; and their husbands would gladly dine with Caroline and Wilkie without their wives. Charles Dickens put it succinctly: “we never speak of the female skeleton in that house”. Martha, who was fifteen years younger than Caroline, was always treated differently. When he was with her Wilkie became William Dawson, barrister at law, and she became Mrs Dawson, the name no doubt taken from Dr Dawson in The Woman in White. He always spoke of her as his “morganatic wife”. While she never visited Gloucester Place, their children William Charles, Constance Harriet and Marian (another name from The Woman in White) were often there. Wilkie Collins and Martha have two great grand children alive today, Faith Clarke (nee Dawson) and Anthony West.

His romantic attachments were conducted in the same vein. He had two mistresses, Caroline

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Author: William Clarke

WILKIE COLLINS: THE DRAMATIST Wilkie Collins was a novelist who simply loved the theatre. Its attraction for him began in Paris as a youth when he rarely overlooked the latest plays. His active involvement, however, grew out of amateur theatricals at a friend’s house, where he took on the role of stage manager. Not long afterwards, through their mutual friend Augustus Egg the artist, he met Charles Dickens who was searching for someone to fill a small part in another amateur production. Collins took the part and was soon dragooned into further children’s productions (once billed as ‘Wilkini Collini’). Only a few months later, thanks to Dickens’ enthusiasm and pulling power, they were both on the stage together in a private fundraising performance at Devonshire House in the presence of Queen Victoria. It raised over £1000. Collins had written no more than a biography of his father and his first novel Antonina when he first tried his hand at translating a French play. He followed this by writing The Lighthouse – “a regular old style melodrama” as Dickens put it. It had only a modest success but was eventually put on at the Olympic Theatre, which was to see a number of his later successes. Not long after he and Dickens collaborated again in writing The Frozen Deep which was eventually put on at the same theatre. Some of Collins’s further writing for the theatre involved adapting some of his best known novels for the stage : No Name, Miss Gwilt (adapted from Armadale), The Moonstone and, of course his own dramatic version of The Woman in White. In the case of two plays, – Man and Wife and The New

Magdalen – he actually began the other way round, starting the stage versions before the novels. Like all playwrights, Collins had his ups and downs. His worst theatrical experience was at the first night of Rank and Riches when early in the play some awkwardly phrased expression prompted a few titters, which then provoked unrestrained laughter to such a degree that the main actor, George Anson, came in front of the curtain at the interval and harangued the audience. The cast never recovered for the rest of the play and were severely hooted at the end. He had his successes too. On one occasion he had two of his plays running in the West End simultaneously. Three of his plays found their way to Broadway – No Name, The New Magdalen and The Woman in White, two of which he attended in person. At one of them he was greeted with acclaim at the end of the third act with shouts of ‘Collins !, Collins !’. He was forced onto the stage where he thanked the New York audience gracefully and politely reminded them that they had a further act to see. It was a reception he experienced in London too. On the first night of The New Magdalen, he later reported to a friend “the audience actually forced me to appear in front of the curtains before the play was half finished. I don’t think I ever saw such enthusiasm in a theatre before”.

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Author: William Clarke

WILKIEAND COLLINS C HARLES DICKENS licence in the metropolis. If you will come and breakfast with me about midnight – anywhere – any day, and go to bed no more until we fly to these pastoral retreats, I shall be delighted”.

Wilkie Collins met Charles Dickens when Dickens was already a household name and Collins a budding writer. They first got to know each other when Dickens offered Collins a small part in an amateur production he was putting together. It prospered and was followed by others. Not long afterwards Dickens, who had been a journalist before his success as a novelist and was editing a literary weekly Household Words, enticed Collins to contribute regularly and before long Wilkie was part of the editorial staff. It was, however, outside the office that their companionship blossomed. Dickens began to invite Collins to his holiday home in Boulogne, France and later to a family apartment in Paris. And it was a short step from such family invitations to a much longer trip to Italy, a trois, with Augustus Egg, the painter who had introduced them to each other in the first place. On some of these foreign ventures Dickens and Collins would take literary work with them; on others the emphasis was on play. And, as Dickens’s marriage began to totter, his need for diversions grew. Collins proved the right companion. They were quite open with each other. On one occasion Dickens dropped a line to Wilkie from Boulogne, indicating that he would be in London for a couple of days which he proposed “to pass in a career of amiable dissipation and unbounded

On another occasion, just as he had finished writing Little Dorrit, he sent a note to Wilkie: “I have finished. On Sunday last I wrote the two little words of three letters each. Any mad proposal you please will find a wildly insane response in -yours ever”. Two weeks later he was even more insistent: “On Wednesday, Sir – on Wednesday – if the mind can devise Charles Dickens anything sufficiently in the style of sybarite Rome in the days of its culminating voluptuousness, I am your man………. I don’t care what it is. I give (for that night only) to the Winds”. The rest is left to the imagination. In later life their companionship grew more distant, partly perhaps as Dickens’ protégée was proving a little too successful and independent, but more likely it owed something to the way Dickens disapproved of his daughter Kate’s marriage to Collins’ younger brother Charles. Collins was thus torn between loyalty to his brother and the reaction of one of his closest friends. His love for his brother would always come first.

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Author: William Clarke

WHO WAS THE ORIGINAL WOMAN IN WHITE? William Clarke Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White caused a sensation when it was published. But its inspiration remained a mystery for nearly 70 years.

Dickens. One of these two women provided a startling episode, which Collins plainly embroidered, in the novel; the other provided one of the major keys to the plot.

“There, in the middle of the broad, bright high road – there as if it had that moment sprung out of the earth or dropped from the heaven – stood the figure of a solitary woman, dressed from head to foot in white garments.”

Whether the actual meeting with Caroline (the only known photograph of whom I discovered 10 years ago in a bottom drawer at the home of one of her descendants, in Streatham, South London) was exactly as portrayed in the novel is still open to conjecture. It is dependent on the story Collins himself told his friends and on their own interpretation many years later. The reported story certainly improved with the telling, stretching over a period of close on 70 years.

This is the dramatic first appearance of the Woman in White, in Wilkie Collins’s best-loved tale. From that moment, at the end of 1859, in the first week’s serialisation of the novel in Charles Dickens’s weekly publication, All the Year Round, Victorian London was in the grip of a mystery it had rarely before encountered. As the weeks went by it became a major talking point all over town. Circulation soared. Soon there were Women in White cloaks and bonnets, a Woman in White perfume and a Woman in White waltzes. And so it has gone on. There are eight different editions of the novel available in London today. North American audiences have been entertained by two film versions of the book. And the largest single edition in the Nineties has been a Russian edition of half a million in Moscow. Little wonder that Dickens regarded the first appearance of the Woman in White as one of the two most dramatic moments in English literature. The true identity of the ghostly figure in the novel intrigued the nation. And so, ever since, has the real identity of the girl on whom Collins based his novel. Two women in particular vie for the title of the original Woman in White. One is Caroline Graves, one of the novelist’s two mistresses, whom he met as a young widow in her early twenties. She lived with him in London, in Gloucester Place, and elsewhere, and is buried with him in Kensal Green cemetery. The other is an obscure French widow, an account of whose tormented life Collins found in an 18th century French book picked up on a second-hand bookstall on one of his Parisian jaunts with

The real episode took place in the mid–1850s when Collins and his brother Charles were walking John Millais, the Pre-Raphaelite artist, back to his lodgings in Gower Street from their mother’s house in Hanover Terrace, overlooking Regent’s Park. It was a moonlit summer’s evening. Suddenly, it is said, they heard a piercing scream from the garden of a nearby villa and from it came the figure of “a young and very beautiful woman dressed in flowing white robes that shone in the moonlight”. She ran past them and, while Millais simply exclaimed “what a beautiful woman”, Collins dashed after her, saying, “I must see who she is and what is the matter”. The odd thing is that none of the companions spoke openly about the episode at the time. Collins himself never referred to it. Nor did his brother or Millais. What we know about the encounter comes from two people related to two of the participants: Millais’s son, John Guille, and Dickens’s youngest daughter, Kate, who later married Wilkie’s brother, Charles. John Guille first mentioned it 40 years after the event; Kate kept quiet until nearly 70 years after it had happened. John Guille simply reported that his father had told him that Collins disappeared with the mysterious girl and when he met them next day told them that the girl, who was of good birth and position, had been held prisoner against her will. Tantalisingly, he gave no further explanation. It was left to Kate finally confirm that Collins

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“had a mistress called Caroline, a young woman of gentle birth and the origin of the Woman in White”. Yet far from being the daughter of a Captain Graves and of gentle birth, as she (and Collins) claimed, she came from a poor carpenter’s family in a small village near Cheltenham and, when Collins met her, was a young widow with a small child. That Collins would have her on his mind while writing The Woman in White, however, is hardly surprising. She and her daughter were with him as he struggled away at the story in a small cottage, Church Hill Cottage, on the Ramsgate Road outside Broadstairs. Caroline was also with him later, no doubt presiding in her usual décolleté white silk gown, at his celebratory publishing party for his closest male companions.

provided some of the mystery he encouraged. Yet my moment goes on the unfortunate Madame de Douhault. She unwittingly provided him with the key to his plot and one of its prime characters, and no one can deny that for him the plot was the kernel of every novel he wrote. He said to himself. “The first step in the Méthode Collins,” he explained to a critic, “is to find a central idea. The second is to find the characters.” The French widow did not fail him. This article first appeared in The Daily Telegraph.

And the other widow? In this case we have Collins’s own words. “I was in Paris”, he later reminisced, “wandering about the streets with Charles Dickens, amusing ourselves by looking into the shops. We came to an old bookstall – half shop and half store – and I found some dilapidated volumes of records of French crimes, a sort of French Newgate Calendar. I said to Dickens, “Here is a prize.” So it turned out to be. In them I found some of my best plots. The Woman in White was one.” We now know that the book was Recueil des Causes Célèbres by Maurice Méjan and that the case that intrigued him concerned Madame de Douhault, a widow wrongly imprisoned by her family. All the elements of Collins’s novel (without revealing the plot) occur: inheritance; incarceration; drugging; and even a white dress. Which widow can claim the greater influence on Collins’s greatest novel? Both in his private life and in the novel Caroline

Caroline Graves

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PART 2: THE PRODUCTION

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I NTERVIEW WITH ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER Composer, The Woman in White

Andrew Lloyd Webber explained to Jeremy Austin in 2004 why he still holds out hope for original musicals and how he coped with the weight of expectation. You would think having a show open in the West End imminently and a self-financed multi-million dollar movie close to wrapping would be enough to keep a person occupied. Not so Andrew Lloyd Webber, The Woman in White opened in September 2004 and The Phantom of the Opera movie in December 2004.

that’s that, there is never going to be another Cats’ and then to have the luck of having two of them I think ‘thank you very much’, because you are lucky if you get that at all.” With that in mind, Lloyd Webber had concentrated on pleasing himself first and foremost by trying to expand his vocabulary as a composer during the creation of the Woman In White – a journey he attempted with The Beautiful Game. He explains: “I tried with The Beautiful Game and I failed but certainly I want The Woman in White to inhabit its own musical language and its own textures. In the first three minutes I have to get people into its own world or I have lost. The orchestration is very important.”

As the musicians sort themselves out, he retires to the upstairs room of the plush recording studios in Islington and becomes the perfect host, making cups of coffee and talking, passionately and genially about new work, old work and Madonna. The Woman In White is Lloyd Webber’s first composition since The Beautiful Game, the musical written with Ben Elton that centred around a football match between Catholics and Protestant in Ireland and failed to ignite critical or public passion. In fact, his show prior to that, Whistle Down the Wind, also had a disappointingly short run by Lloyd Webber’s standards, running for 3 years. Does that mean that the pressure is on for The Woman in White to be a hit? The success of Cats was the sort of thing that only happens once and to only a handful of creative people. Except Lloyd Webber, to whom it happened twice. The Phantom of the Opera has now made more money worldwide than any other artistic enterprise, including the biggest blockbuster movie. Lloyd Webber is, however, realistic enough not to expect it a third time. “There will never be another Phantom of the Opera in my career because everything that happened with it is so prodigious and the statistics are mindblowing, so you can’t really think about them. I never thought when I wrote Phantom that it would end up the way that it has,” he says.

For the plot, Lloyd Webber has merged the start of Wilkie Collins’ story with that of The Signalman – a Charles Dickens short story in the Gothic horror mould that the composer once offered to turn into a piece for the English National Opera. “I think the Dickens story gives me a wonderful advantage in it makes the whole thing so spooky. If you think about those Victorian telegraph wires that used to be said they were singing in the wind because they used to hum. So we start with a series of humming sounds. The theatre goes dark, we are in a railway cutting and all around the theatre will be the humming of the wires. It is a musical conceit,” he says. “But the great joy for me is not being the producer so I can do things like orchestrations. I love producing. I had great fun producing Bombay Dreams and hopefully being an advisor to [its composer] AR Rahman but I really am a composer at the end of the day and I never get involved if I can with the business – it is one thing I don’t enjoy doing. I am at the moment feeling free now in a way that I haven’t before.”

“I remember when I wrote Cats I thought, ‘well

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This article appears with kind permission from The Stage Newspaper. August 2004

Edward Petherbridge as Mr Fairlie

Maria Friedman as Marian Halcombe

The ensemble. Original production photography by Manual Harlan

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WOMAN IN WHITE’S STEPS TO THE STAGE C HARLOTTE JONES’ DIARY

As the new musical prepared for preview in 2004, Charlotte Jones, its writer, opened her diary to reveal every detail of rehearsals. THE call came through my agent. The producer Sonia Friedman was eager for me to meet Andrew Lloyd Webber to discuss a musical version of Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White. I thought: “Will I really have to read another Penguin Classic?” Since completing my English degree I have had an aversion to anything longer than 400 pages that comes with an introduction. So it was with some trepidation that I came to read the novel two days before I was to meet Andrew. I needn’t have worried. An international bestseller at the time of publication at 1860, it still makes a thrilling and breathless read. It works as a murder mystery, a psychological thriller, a detective novel and a domestic love story. I told Andrew: “You know, I’ve no idea how to write the book to a musical.” He said not to worry. When he, Don Black and Christopher Hampton were writing Sunset Boulevard he had three houses in the South of France; each had a house to himself and they would meet up for lunch. I thought, “That doesn’t sound too bad.”

WEEK ONE Eighteen months later after various “working” trips to Andrew’s homes in New York, Ireland and Majorca, and a lot of very nice lunches, the script and the score of The Woman in White exist and it is time to hand it over to the actors. The principals and creative team meet at the Jerwood Space, near Waterloo. I’m told that musical theatre actors are a different breed. “Twirlies” they call them. On first impression they all just look slightly slimmer, prettier and can sing as well as act. Some things aren’t fair in this life. I have just discovered that I am pregnant. I am suffering much worse nausea than I did with my son. It’s all very bad timing. I am exhausted. I’ve already put on half a stone and suddenly I am living in the land of the sylph.

The Woman in White is played by an American actress, Angela Christian. She is whippet-thin with freckles and fierce red hair. She moves like a thoroughbred horse who might kick at any point. Perfect for our “is she mad or isn’t she?” heroine. Our “juve lead” Laura (Jill Paice) looks like Meg Ryan, except taller and more attractive. The hero, Walter Hartright, a drawing master, is played by Australian hunk Martin Crewes. He smoulders quietly in a corner of the room. There have already been two workshop performances and Trevor Nunn, the director, has delivered a talk that encompasses the novelist and his relationship with Charles Dickens (friendly), his love life (bigamous) and the differences between our adaptation and the novel (fairly extensive). At the end, Trevor asks David [Zippel, the lyricist] and me if we have anything to add. David pleads that he is on New York time. I glance at the company who all look, well, hungry, and tell Trevor that he has it all pretty well covered. After lunch, the cast read the script as if it were a play. The story begins in a remote railway cutting in Cumbria in 1870. A mysterious woman dressed in white appears “out of the night” and accosts young Hartright, as he is on his way to give lessons to two sisters. She tells him that she has a secret and then runs away.

WEEK TWO We have the meet-and-greet with hundreds of people in the room. Big musicals are machines. We go around introducing ourselves. Andrew finishes with: “I’m Andrew and I’m the composer.” Everyone laughs. He sits on the nearest possible chair, which resembles a throne. Bill Dudley reveals his set design. He has used video projections before but never on this scale. It’s like being in the IMAX. On one scene we move from a country house to a formal garden, to wilder countryside, to a waterfall in a Cumbrian village.

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WEEK THREE Michael Crawford is charming and giggly. He plays the scheming Count Fosco exactly as written by Collins: immensely fat, with a penchant for bonbons and white mice. In the show he will wear a fat suit. But such is his physical dexterity as an actor that within a week you see him piling on metaphorical weight, his jowls descending, his gait slowing. He and Maria Friedman are rehearsing the seduction scene that we invented for them. Maria plays Marian Halcombe. Marian is THE PART. She is clever, funny, resourceful, brave, misguided, vulnerable. Michael and Maria are Olympic gold artists. The scene is going to be a highlight.

WEEK FOUR We move to Alford House in Kennington as the room at Jerwood is not big enough to accommodate our stage. We have a revolve for the first time. The show has six stage managers and they are working their socks off. Every night after rehearsals there is a dry technical run at the theatre. By the time we are open, the show will have had eight weeks of technical rehearsals, so demanding and ground-breaking is the set.

She appears to never eat or indeed sleep. She tells me that Rigby and Peller are making her a corset for the first night on 15 September. I am jealous. I will be 18 weeks pregnant and at that “is she pregnant or simply fat?” stage. It will be my first real red carpet event. Trevor, who is another workaholic, in rehearsals is extraordinary to watch. He very much shapes the action, doesn’t leave the actors much space while giving them the impression that they are making their own decisions. Actors, like toddlers, need their boundaries. He knows his stuff. We have our final run-through. Michael Crawford uses a rat and a mouse for the first time – he sings, pirouettes and makes the rat travel up and down his outreached arms. He is a class act. The piece really seems to work as both a thriller and romance. The score is clever and varied: lush, melodic one minute, dark and edgy the next. Two women who work in marketing have come to watch it and are in tears by the end. The atmosphere is buzzy and up. All this before we put the actors in costume and the orchestra takes over from the rehearsal room piano. If I can only find a slimming and glamorous kaftan for the opening night, things are looking good.

I find an ally in our associate director, Daniel Kramer. His incisive comments about The Woman in White’s secret lead to rewrites. He is clever and funny. After rehearsals, we have a script meeting to discuss rewrites. It gets a bit edgy. I am reminded that I am working with two of the titans of musical theatre. Andrew has been for the most part a courteous and sweet collaborator and Trevor Nunn is a wonderful dramaturg and diplomacy itself. But as experienced as they are, the heat is getting to them.

WEEK FIVE Sonia Friedman is making her presence felt. We call her Sonia Jessica Parker, in homage to her enviable sense of style. She is the most glamorous producer on the West End, and one of the most powerful. She has the requisite Jekyll and Hyde personality of the producer – lovely one moment, tough and uncompromising the next.

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This piece appears courtesy of The Independent newspaper.

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I NTERVIEW WITH WILLIAM DUDLEY Set and Video Designer

projected it on to the model. You could project it on to a curved screen which makes it 3D – and that persuades the eye that this is ‘real’. Anyway, they loved it and that’s how I designed The Coast of Utopia.

Julia Potts met with Bill Dudley in early 2005 to discuss the innovative, complex and imaginative processes which went into designing The Woman in White’s award-winning set and video material. In a room packed full of computers, books and pictures, Bill explained how the design had evolved, and what went into realising it on stage.

DESIGNING THE SET AND VIDEO What was you brief for this show? Well, first of all, I wasn’t allowed to read the novel! I did dip in but they wanted me to see the script in its own right and of course, the flavour was all there. Everyone I knew knew more about it than I did! How did this process evolve and why was it chosen for The Woman In White? Three years ago Trevor Nunn asked me to design Tom Stoppard’s trilogy, The Coast of Utopia. Tom (Stoppard) said he’d written it like a movie, and made no apology for that fact. He didn’t want a black box set either, but a strong sense of location and time and space. I had had an interest in 3D software, such as they use on films like Toy Story, for a while, and I perceived that they went beyond the banality of games. I thought it had fine art applications. I animated one of the scenes and

Andrew Lloyd Webber saw that production and decided to do The Woman in White like that. It’s very atmospheric, and can change scene rapidly, so it really appealed to him for this show. In the interim, I had used the technique working with Roman Polanski, and again on Terry Johnson’s Hitchcock Blonde. I don’t think anyone else is using this technique just yet, judging by all the talks I’m being asked to give in different countries! We are currently working on the New York production, and changing the London one, so it’s still very alive for me. We’re hoping to make it even darker and scarier. We have 8 projectors. The angle is very steep, but it won’t distort because the computer works it all out in advance. We’re at a point where anyone can work with it. As an example of the time it takes, I’m working on a composite image of an attic littered with old toys and artifacts which will open the show. So far I’ve spent two weeks on it. The ideas are introduced to actors as big print outs put up against the model box. By the third preview we realised the show was lacking a final cathartic moment, and that’s when we introduced the train crash as a big visual moment. The story of the software is interesting. It originated with NASA, which had to offer some way for the great American public to visualize where the Voyager expeditions were going to justify the enormous amount of tax payer’s money that was being spent on it! It was then taken on by the military, and then by Hollywood. Three great American industries!

The set model

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LOOKING AT A SCENE IN DETAIL

Pan back into churchyard WIW Resolves to follow Laura and Glyde

New Scene Churchyard

Procession from church and to village street by side of church

10 VILLAGE WEDDING Church

Approach to main entrance to Blackwater House. Seasonal change as we progress towards house via driveway.

The scene: what we needed to achieve was a bridge between two distinct phases in the play.

The end of the summer idyll, marked by the harvest and the arrival of Sir Percival Glyde, and the beginning of the nightmare. The camera tracks down the valley and into the church, and the golden light starts to fade into something colder and more foreboding.

11: RETURN FROM HONEYMOON Blackwater House

The church was made from plans from the Church Commissioners. It’s a winter wedding, I wanted you to be able to imagine you could see everyone’s breath.

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How did you research your period? Well, it’s absolutely Pre-Raphaelite. And we had a real stroke of luck. I went to meet Andrew (LloydWebber), and happened to take along two books on Atkinson Grimshaw, a relatively unknown artist. Happily, Andrew turned out to be one of the major collectors of his work! It meant we were on the same wavelength. The quality of these paintings is amazing; the sense of landscape, the sense of space, the sense of what light should be doing were all marvellous. It was a much smokier atmosphere, and Grimshaw captures that so completely. An aerial view of the village Limmeridge

What is the practical process involved? We had a team of 9 on this show; hardware people, video editors, technical draftsmen and programmers. The wonderful thing is that you can slice images and line up projectors to project at the same screen perfectly – because it’s all digital. There were enormous pressures of time. We started working on it in May 2003, but I was involved other projects in the Autumn of that year, and then we had from January – September 2004. The pure logistics were huge. Trevor Nunn was largely responsible for making dynamic sense of it all; there really were lots of parallels to the movies, like storyboards etc. The music had largely not been written when we started work, so we were making huge assumptions about the timings needed. It was like post-production in the movies, but in production time! Rehearsal notes change things every day and it was really, really hard. We were finding our way with the medium whilst all the usual changes were emerging. One crucial point was that our actors, being human beings, are a fixed size! So when you swing through a landscape, you have to re-scale everything accordingly. You can’t zoom in on someone’s face for a headshot like you do in the movies!

Painting by Atkinson Grimshaw

COSTUMES There are really three great periods of the Victorian age when it comes to costumes – and it’s always the crinolines that get cheap laughs! They can be kind of ludicrous. The novel is, I believe, set slightly earlier, but we decided to shift it to the late 1860s, when the dresses were beautiful, and allowed greater freedom of movement. Drawings of the pre-Raphaelites show how they encouraged the women to dress ‘rationally’, so the clothes didn’t force the figure. These women in our story were much more free; they have the run of their house, which is dominated by their spirit, not Mr Fairlie’s. The Pre-Raphaelites were easy within their households, good to their servants, and wanted to epitomise ‘responsible wealth’.

Designing headstones for the graveyard

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against mouse pee! Michael, in some ways, actually worked out some of his scenes in the fitting room as he got used to the way things felt. We also gave him dancing pumps, which emphasises his foreignness. Fosco is a confident fat man. In the 1860s, fat was good, a sign of stature of wealth, which is hard to appreciate in this day and age. Fosco was a philanderer, a fine figure of a man!

It was also the period of annilene dyes, which really was a revolution in colour (and which also meant less patterning, of course). The PreRaphaelites have explosions of colour in their work, so we knew this production mustn’t be monochromatic. Men’s clothes were good too; it’s before the over-mannering of tailoring characteristic of the late nineteenth century, and still throws back to the Regency period. I had been worrying about Count Fosco, and frankly, putting off doing him, but one day I just sat down at the computer and drew him! He’s an amalgam of Caruso and someone out of The Godfather, a Don from Sicily! He dresses very like the early opera stars, and his hat (a high domed fedora), is crucial because it’s totally indicative of an Italian. We had great fun with Michael and Fosco. We had him laser-scanned and measured, and modeled the ‘fat’ to him. The fat suit actually has rat runs in it and is waterproofed

We had costumes made all over the place –some suits in Hong Kong, shoes from Czechoslovakia… What themes were paramount for you? A sense of immersion in the space. The audience is more with them because they know what’s beyond the fourth wall. Things are done to these women; the world moves around them both literally and metaphorically. They become quarry for the hunters in one scene, which sums up so much about the story. We get a much better control of atmosphere through this design, I think. I think this style of design for a piece of theatre can really work for younger people in particular. They understand film and games, so are very visually literate, but possibly less informed about the wider world. They have less awareness of any part of society that’s not their exact same age group. I really fear the segregation of ages that we seem to have now.

Original sketch of Count Fosco

William Dudley design of the interior of Limmeridge church

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Kids are familiar with navigating space. Some arcade games have three screens which really gives the 3D impression, but the game’s intention is simply to win a race. But what it’s really about is traversing a space, and discovering people in it – and that’s what cinema is about too. It’s also what theatre used to do. For hundreds of years, all the technical minds in theatre had been trying to push what technology they had to get the best effects they can. Then in the middle of the twentieth century, the ‘just bare boards and passion’ argument won through. But this seems to me to go against what the audience want – they want visual treats. Why do we always precede the word ‘spectacle’ with ‘mere’?! But the audience is voting with their feet – and surely that’s a true reflection?

PERSONAL HISTORY At art school I was also involved in a great amateur theatre company in Islington, which involved people of all ages. It was really taken seriously. It helped me through that transition from a teenager to an adult. After my Fine Art degree I did a postgrad in Theatre Design. My first job was designing Hamlet with Alan Bates and Celia Johnson for the Nottingham Playhouse, and which then transferred to the West End - which a was pretty wonderful start, I grant you! I then went on to be the resident designer at the Royal Court. I’ve worked on and off at the National Theatre since 1971, and I’ve now designed getting on for 60 shows.

Scenes from London

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I NTERVIEW WITH DANIEL KRAMER Associate Director

Please could you outline your role in this production, its main responsibilities and creative inputs? My role as Associate Director was primarily to assist Trevor Nunn in any capacity he needed – from the stereotypical coffee runs to communicating to his designers and actors, my job was to help Trevor however he needed. A great deal of this was filtering what information came before Trevor; his job is extremely stressful with every decision ultimately on his shoulders. My job was to filter what ideas and questions he heard and when; and as I began to learn from Trevor, with such stress all about, timing is everything. If someone asked Trevor a question in a moment when he clearly had another priority, their question had a small chance of being heard let alone answered. This in turn meant that my job was also to help the various other department heads such as the Producer, the Designers and Stage and Company Managers. Recognizing they all needed essential information from Trevor more often than any director might like, my job was to hear their questions and find every key opportunity to communicate with Trevor efficiently and effectively. My creative input was always on offer but only stated when asked. From Trevor to Sonia to the writers and designers, I always had an opinion, but my opinion was kept to myself unless asked. I was not an equal creative force and nor should an associate be. I’m a go-between to help eliminate stress for Trevor and his collaborators. At what stage did you come on board? I was hired about one month before rehearsals began so I missed all prep for the show, really entering into the process on day one of rehearsals. As I had just assited Trevor on his Hamlet at the Old Vic however, I did have a nice 3 month working relationship with him under my belt.

How did you and Trevor approach the rehearsal process? How did the rehearsals work practically, and what techniques did you employ which may be specific to this show? Trevor’s approach exists before and independent of me. He employed a similar process on this show as on Hamlet. He begins with the history of the author’s world and the material on day one. He then drives through the entire show, putting a lose but simple and crystal clear blocking structure on the show, answering all of the actors questions and exploring their ideas while identifying each relationship and story point along the way which the story must have to be clear for the audience. At the end of this… say 2 weeks, he then immediately works through the show again, top to finish. In this second work through, the actors are mostly off book and struggling more intimately with the characters, their emotional lives and relationships and their own impulses. Trevor hones his blocking in even more, streamlining the movement and story that the audience will soon follow. After these two slow workthroughs of the show, the company have their first run – usually on a Saturday. From here, Trevor sees what essentials he must address in the final, third workthrough which seems to happen in one quick, focused week. The next Saturday is the first run for the production team and followed by few days of working and running to imprint the show’s arc in the actor’s emotional and physical bodies. Technicals being the next layer. I wouldn’t say the show required any unusual techniques specific to the show. The story and style are somewhat melodramatic, but Trevor allowed the actors to find this via the music really, no specific work was done on the style.

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How did you help the acting company get used to the very complex and innovative design behind this production? I continually told them how good they looked onstage!!! Seriously, the best thing I was able to do was to keep everyone’s confidence and morale up. Technicals bring out many insecurities for actors; there not much I can do except be there for them when they have a problem and ensure them the note has been taken and will be dealt with – and constantly reinforce how wonderful they look and are!

What day-to-day involvement do you now have with the show? I watch the show once a week to ensure quality. When covers are on or need extra work or replacements are put in, I am at those rehearsals with the Resident Director to ensure Trevor’s vision is upheld as are the Producer’s standards. Moreover, it’s important that the ensemble continue to feel held by Trevor via me. They know they can turn to someone if artistic problems develop. What, for you, makes The Woman in White special?

Which themes are paramount for you in the production? The illusion of truth. What, do you think, is the most important role played by an Associate Director? Filtering and prioritising the information flow to and from the director.

Getting to be a part of the world premiere of an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, directed by Trevor Nunn that’s as exciting as it gets at age 27 I feel. If you were able to talk to a student coming to see this production for the first time, what would you advise them to really look or listen out for? The way in which Andew’s music expresses emotion and story through melody. It’s such a rare quality to find in musical theatre. He ventures deeply into this territory and succeeds triumphantly.

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I NTERVIEW WITH MARGIE BAILEY Costume Supervisor

Can you take us through the key elements of the role of a costume supervisor please, focusing especially on the relationship with the designer? I’ve worked with Bill (Dudley, Set Designer) for about 7 years, so our working relationship on this show was built on a knowledge of each other. My role is to facilitate his designs, and to realise them. I purchase fabrics, and then employ the best makers for each particular costume or style. Bill involves his Costume Supervisors very early on – a few months in advance usually. He wanted The Woman in White to be entirely pre-Raphaelite. Luckily he has an extensive library, so lots of ideas came from there. We were also blessed with access to Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s own collection of PreRaphaelite paintings, which is one of the best in the world. Otherwise I would normally go to an exhibition or gallery for research. Bath Costume Museum is always a wonderful place to delve into as well. For this show I had in the region of 30 different makers. Bill has specific makers he likes to use; it’s very important to find makers who are empathetic. There were about 4 core makers, but with a much larger team covering the full range of requirements. Over 400 costumes needed to be made for this show, once you include all the understudy and crew costumes as well. There were 5 weeks of rehearsal, during which we have to organise and complete all the fittings. The fabrics and designs are all ready at Week 1, but the fitting process is more complicated, and has to work around all the other demands on the actors’ time. How much influence do the actors have over their costumes? Quite a lot. Bill enjoys putting them in costumes they feel comfortable in. In terms of this period, we went for the ‘Pre-Raphaelite’ look, the ‘Victorian thinking woman’, the age of enlightenment, which meant no crinolines, hair down not up. This was very significant in terms of their movement because there are no confined costumes. Bill’s sympathies certainly lie with the actors!

What is the process? I start by making a costume plot for the entire show, which basically states who is on in which scene and what they need to be wearing. These really come into their own with the wedding scene, for example, where we had to change Laura’s costume on stage. These sorts of things can be done, if they are done carefully – and you don’t always need to resort to Velcro! Having the right amount of dressers is crucial (people who manage the costume changes and quick changes on stage). They are managed by the Wardrobe Mistress, who works directly from the costume plot. Could we focus on one actor, say Maria Friedman (Marian Halcombe) and could you tell us in detail about her costumes? We had great fun with Maria! We talked a lot before rehearsals started. She was very happy about the Pre-Raphaelite style. We discussed colours, and brought a fabric chart to the initial meeting. We also had to make her resemble something from the book (although Bill had been asked not to read it!). We wanted to give the impression of a highly intelligent woman, a cultured thinker, and therefore her clothes needed to be unfussy, and quite plain. We had great fun fitting her up – fittings could go on for two to three hours sometimes! You have to achieve a balance with these frocks and make the actress feel like a real woman, not a trussed up doll. Maria gave lots of feedback as well, such as the fact that she wasn’t keen on hats, so we looked at different types of head-wear, such as the snood she wears in London. The fabrics we chose in the end were wools and silks. Hair-wise, we spent quite a long time discussing her wigs. In the book, Marian is very dark-haired, but this would have swamped her. We found a brilliant wig maker who got it just right, and added to the youthfulness of the character. Maria was thrilled when it all came together.

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COUNT FOSCO It was very refreshing that Michael (Crawford, Count Fosco) wanted to go the whole way with no limitations. We had a long telephone conversation on fat people whom he might resemble. Trevor (Nunn, Director) wanted Fosco to be attractive. We developed the idea through different fittings. We got the size right, then Bill drew the grey suit image. Fosco is unconventional, but smart, colourful and respectable. There were several fittings with the fat suit itself. Bill felt that a fat man of that period would have corseted himself, not as a form of disguise, but to give that proud pigeon chest effect. He would have been a vain man, who would quite happily have gone to that extent. The fat suit is comprised of a ‘ribcage’, then foam rubber, then pieces of solid padding. It gets very hot, so we’ve even put pockets for ice in it to cool it down. The fat suit tends to get about 10lbs heavier after a performance! Of course the suit is complemented by prosthetic chins, which were made by the same person who made the fat suit. We had Michael’s head carved and digitally imaged. It was a very complicated process.

WIGS All the ladies have wigs, and all the men have some form of facial hair. Glyde has a wig; it was fun getting that repressed look! They are all real hair wigs, which are hand knotted. Really, they are objects of art because it’s such an intricate process to model it to the head shape and get the hair line right. SHOES The shoes generally speaking came from a theatrical shoemaker. We looked to Italy, but essentially we needed someone nearby. My role now the show has opened is to attend understudy rehearsals, and replicate all the principals’ costumes as we need them. I get involved in the transitions, the making of new costumes, and drop in and do spot checks. The team manage beautifully, but sometimes it’s helpful to have another pair of eyes on the show!

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Michael Crawford as Count Fosco. Original production photography by Manual Harlan

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I NTERVIEW WITH S IMON LEE Musical Supervisor

Can you tell us about the audition process?

Let’s start with the basics! What does the role of a Musical; Supervisor involve?

It took place, on and off, for about 3 months. You see a lot of people, especially for a new show. You’re 90% sure of what you want. Andrew Lloyd Webber is very good at adapting to the performer. Recasting is very different, of course, because vocal obligations exist. And there’s always the dynamic of who plays opposite someone – the dynamics of height, and look, and rapport.

The Musical Supervisor is the conduit between the composer and all aspects musical – everyone else essentially! I have ultimate responsibility for the sound of the show, along with the Sound Designer. It works on two levels; one, as another pair of expert ears, an objective listener, and the other is ‘in the trenches’, working the material with the team. This aspect is especially important on a new show. It’s very much to do with the development of the music.

What’s your day-to-day role in the show now?

At what stage did you start working with Andrew Lloyd-Webber? We had two workshops of The Woman in White initially. The first was fifteen months before the show was produced. Then there were many meetings. I was involved in finding all the musicians, of whom there are 14. Some are ‘doubles’, meaning they play several instruments, usually similar ones. For example the flute player plays several types of flute. How much did the orchestration change throughout the rehearsal and production periods? It was in a constant state of flux until opening night! It’s a very busy time – but I like it! Stress is my motor, I think. This musical is almost sung through. Can you elaborate on what this means, and its musical implications? Sung through musicals don’t break up into numbers. There are ‘set pieces’ but often spoken things are a heightened form of recitative. The ear has to adjust but, importantly, it keeps you in the same world. It’s much more demanding for the actors, especially for the characters of Marian and Laura, although the Palace Theatre is a proper musical house, with wonderful acoustics.

I suppose it’s one of hands-off supervision. I note the show, rehearse people where necessary, and do recasting or work on new productions, for example the one we’ll be taking to the States later this year. If a young person wanted to be one of the musicians in the pit, what advice would you give him or her? Work very hard! There are some of the best musicians in the world here. They’ve come from great orchestras – you have to be the best! The principal horn player for The Woman in White used to be at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, for example. Music, like any aspect of the performing arts, is over-subscribed, and it’s hard to make a living! The musicians are not B-list by any means. What makes this musical special musically? It’s a great piece. It’s what Andrew Lloyd-Webber does best – Victorian, gothic melodrama. The story gives him a palette to write what he does best – atmospheric, evocative music.

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PART 3: PRACTICAL EXERCISES FOR TEACHERS & STUDENTS

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I NTRODUCTION: This section is aimed to offer a selection of exercises and discussion points to help shape classroom work associated with a visit to see The Woman in White. It is aimed primarily at those studying GCSE Drama or Theatre Studies, GCSE Music, and A1 and A2 Drama or Theatre Studies. The information here does not attempt to tell teachers how to teach, but instead offers stimuli for both teachers and students based on our indepth knowledge of the production and its key features. It is hoped that the ideas in Section 3 will encourage attentive and engaged viewing and listening from students seeing The Woman in White, and provoke informed debate in class afterwards.

‘The Drama Medium’ The use of costumes, mask and make-up The use of sound and/or music The use of lighting The use of space and/or levels The use of set/and or props The use of movement, mime and gesture The use of voice The use of spoken language and ‘Evaluation of a live performance of any play’ ‘…the evaluation should reflect the students’ understanding and appreciation of how others are using the elements of drama. In the evaluation, students should recognize the significance of the social, cultural and/or historical influences on the play and/or the performance…’.

A visit to see The Woman in White will be particularly relevant to exploring the following:

GCSE Music (Edexcel)

GCSE Drama (Edexcel)

In particular:

‘The elements of drama’

Area of Study 2 – New Directions in Western Classical Music 1900 – Present Day

Action/plot/content Forms Climax.anti-climax Rhythm/pace/tempo Context Characterisation Conventions Symbols

Area of Study 3 – Popular Song in Context (Songs from musicals) and developing listening skills. A visit to The Woman in White would also support two of the three the key objectives for GCSE Music of ‘developing a life-long interest in music’ and ‘progress to further study of music or pursue a music-related career, where appropriate’.

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B EFORE YOU GO: Before a visit to see The Woman in White, you may wish to introduce the following: The Context

The Themes

The Woman in White is the latest musical from composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. Your students may be familiar with his previous work, for example Cats, The Phantom of the Opera or Jesus Christ Superstar.

The Woman in White deals especially, but not exclusively, with these themes:

The writer, Charlotte Jones, wrote the much acclaimed play Humble Boy, which won several awards in 2001. It is directed by Trevor Nunn, one of Britain’s most famous and accomplished directors. From 1997-2003 he was Director of The National Theatre, and students may know his work if they have seen Les Miserables or the recent production of Hamlet at The Old Vic.

The place of women in this society, how men treat them, and their lack of power and influence The nature of love, both requited and unrequited Victorian melodrama and ghost stories The nature of Personal Morality The way we judge people, then and now The Music and Libretto The Woman in White is almost completely ‘sung through’. This means that there is very little dialogue and most of the story is told through the music, and the actors’ singing.

The Period The Woman in White is set in 1860 and its design is very strongly influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites. You may wish to introduce some of these artists, for example William Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the less well known Atkinson Grimshaw, to the students, in particular those who are studying theatre design. This will give them a flavour of the show, and an understanding that it is not ‘Victorian crinoline’ in style. It uses a pioneering approach to theatre design, which students may well not have seen before. This involves extensive use of video design rather than conventional scenery.

Students may wish to consider what this means for: The partnership between composer, lyricist and writer The audience The lead actors The way in which important moments are conveyed to the audience

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AFTER YOUR VISIT: After a visit to the show, you may wish to use some of the following suggestions as the basis for class discussion or practical work.

the musical), Sir Percival Glyde is described on his entrance as: … a handsome, aristrocratic, elegant man in his early to middle thirties. His manner is easy and charming.’

The Story: How was the story of The Woman in White told?

What was your first opinion of him? Explain why you formed this opinion.

Was there a narrator? Who did you sympathise with in Act One, and whose version of the story did you trust? Why? What was the effect of most of the story being sung?

Sir Percival Glyde changes considerably as the story develops. What clues is the audience given to make us aware of what’s happening? Think about His appearance What he says What he’s doing His tone of voice The music

The Characters: Marian Halcombe Marian introduces herself to Walter Hartright in this way:

Mr Fairlie (Marian and Laura’s Uncle) Once Sir Percival Glyde has arrived, Mr Fairlie presents his views very forcefully to everyone else:

Very soon you’ll meet my sister Well, she’s tech’nic’ly my half But she’s my whole world – my sister Is the wheat and I’m the chaff She’s kind and generous and fun Much younger, and the pretty one! What do you notice from the lyrics about Marian’s opinion of herself, of Laura, and her attitude to life? Laura Laura has been introduced to us by Marian, and we get to know both sisters through the long hot summer of drawing lessons. Laura reveals her feelings for Walter in this way:

There’s nothing to decide. My niece will marry Glyde A Christmas wedding Is where we’re heading And Marian will go And live with them, no fear The instant she becomes his spouse They both will exit Limm’ridge House Which will be quiet as a mouse At last I’ll like it here! What does this tell you about his agenda? Count Fosco Count Fosco only appears halfway through Act One, and exits the story halfway through Act Two, but he is one of the musical’s most dominant characters.

I’m trying not to notice him Yet I return each glance A thousand contradictions Are stirring in my soul They seem to grow in me Overflow in me What does her choice of language tell us about Laura? Sir Percival Glyde In the book to The Woman in White (the story Charlotte Jones wrote which forms the basis for

Consider what makes him so memorable, and explain what effect each element has on the characters in the story AND on the audience: His appearance His props His songs His foreignness

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Exercise

Did it remind you of any other art-form?

At the end of Act One, Marian has to face the fact that she has misjudged Sir Percival Glyde, and sent away the one man who truly loved Laura, much to her beloved sister’s detriment. Invite a student to be Marian at this point in the story, and to take the ‘hot-seat’. The remainder of the group question her on her feelings at this stage in the story.

What did it do better than a conventional, solid 3-D set? What did it not do as well as a conventional, solid 3-D set? Which scenes did you like the most and why? Do you think this sort of technically complicated design is a good idea for theatre?

Then ask people to take the roles of: How else might you be able to use video projection in performance?

Laura Sir Percival Glyde Walter Hartright Count Fosco

Exercise

all at the same point – the end of Act One, when Laura has married Glyde, they are back from their honeymoon, and Marian has realised the awful truth.

Make a costume drawing of your own for one of the main characters:

The Woman in White

Annotate the drawing with brief notes explaining why you have chosen each element.

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The character of The Woman in White herself plays a very important role in the story. She has something important to tell yet cannot be heard through conventional means. She is unable to communicate normally and, crucially, to be believed because of her circumstances.

Marian Laura The Woman in White Sir Percival Glyde Count Fosco

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The Music

The Woman in White is almost completely sungthrough. How did you find this?

Exercise Working in small groups, ask the students to devise a scene whereby one person is excluded from the mainstream. The setting can be modern or Victorian. That person needs to find a way in. What options does he/she have? How willing is the group to change its behaviour, or to trust the stranger?

What do you think this is like for the lead actors? Which songs do you remember and why? Did you look into the Orchestra pit and see the musicians? Were there more or less than you thought?

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The Set

As discussed throughout the pack, the set and video design for The Woman in White is very new and very different. Key points for discussions may be: How did you adjust to the very different style of design? Did you find it strange?

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Adaptation The Woman in White was originally a novel by Wilkie Collins. In its new form as a drama and musical, whole new elements have been added and some have been lost. Consider what the advantages and disadvantages of this may be for the following elements: The plot The way the story is told The suspense and melodrama The characterisation The atmosphere The visual aspect (location, costumes etc) Exercise Forum Theatre Invite some students to take the roles of Marian, Laura, Walter Hartright, Mr Fairlie, Sir Percival Glyde and Count Fosco. The scene is at Limmeridge House, just after Glyde’s arrival, when Walter Hartright publicly challenges him over the accusations made by the mysterious Woman in White. Glyde offers his own version, which seems to satisfy everyone except Hartright. The students improvise a scene around this aspect of the plot and perform it once. Then it is performed a second time, when the rest of the group have license to interrupt and make suggestions to each character to change their behaviour. Analyse the difference once the group has finished. Why do we think the characters in The Woman in White behave as they do?

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A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE FOR E NGLISH AND H ISTORY TEACHERS Many of the aspects covered already in this section will be as relevant to students studying English or even History, rather than Drama. The exercises mentioned still offer valuable pointers to help them get the most out of a visit to the show. The Woman in White can provide a fascinating theatre visit for students of English and History, and the following are some suggestions to help focus discussion of the production in ways which are relevant to these respective syllabuses. ENGLISH The Woman in White is a free adaptation from the hugely popular Victorian novel by Wilkie Collins. Please see Section 1 for background information on the novel and the author. Students of English Language and Literature at GCSE may want to address:

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The process of adaptation – how have Charlotte Jones and David Zippel condensed the story to fit into 2 and a half hours of stage time? The characterisation – are the characters you see on stage like the ones you meet on the book? How are their characteristics conveyed theatrically as opposed to through prose?

HISTORY Student studying Modern European or British History, for example, the Edexcel GCSE in History A (Modern European and World History) or B (British Social and Economic History or AQA GCSE British Economic and Social History 1700 – 1900 will find this production relevant and stimulating. In particular, it can aide discussion on:

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Exploring Genre – what do you learn about the characteristics of melodrama from seeing this production? How well do they translate to the stage? Discussing similarities and differences with other literary works of the period eg Charles Dicken’s The Signalman and Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre.

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The position of women in Victorian society and the subsequent emancipation of women (Marian’s, Laura’s and Anne’s lack of power and vulnerability at the hands of the male characters). Poor Law and Reform – how were people like Anne Catherick treated in Victorian society? Public Health – the asylum system, and changes that were made in the nineteenth century. The difference between the treatment of the rich and the poor. The Pre-Raphaelite movement – the design of the show is heavily based on this artistic movement of the mid nineteenth century, and thus provides a wonderful ‘living’ insight in to the style, fabrics and fashions of this period.

A TEACHER’S VIEW OF THE WOMAN IN WHITE: directors and actors in through-composed musicals hampered by the fact that they cannot set their own tempo-rhythms for the production? What alternative avenues are there for conveying mood and emotion?

For all its origins as a classic and much-adapted Victorian novel, Trevor Nunn’s production of The Woman in White provides audiences with astonishing new theatrical sensations thanks to Production Designer William Dudley’s computergenerated scenic world. If the opportunity arises, it could be a revealing exercise for students to compare this new musical with the same director’s staging of another 19thcentury epic, Les Misérables, or indeed with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s own Phantom of the Opera. The original productions of Les Mis and Phantom are still playing in the West End, and given that all three shows offer their audiences soaring melodies, rich emotions and sweeping period frescoes, there is plentiful scope for students to compare and contrast their respective visual languages. One analytical task for drama students might be to examine the director’s organisation of his actors on the large Palace stage. Trevor Nunn is a master of stage disposition whose experience of marshalling large forces to advance the drama and please the eye is unrivalled. You might try these tasks:

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For The Woman in White, with only a minimal amount of solid-state décor to supplement the CGI projections, pick out half a dozen examples of striking compositions and decide how they enhance the audience’s perception of a scene. (Examples might include the picnic, the music room, the wedding etc). Consider how Nunn and his cast solve the problems that arise when performers cannot interact with props or furnishings. In several extended sections of The Woman in White, Nunn’s stage is completely bare apart from the projections (e.g. the railway, the graveyard, the boathouse). How do the characters avoid aimlessness and convince us that they are engaged with their environment? (Contrast this stagecraft with the tactile worlds of the barricades and opera house in those other shows.)

Music students might look beyond a mere appreciation of the show’s melodic richness and consider the theatrical aspects of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s score. The creation of dramatic musical theatre is a complex, specialised art form, and modern theatregoers demand far greater sophistication from a musical than the audiences of, say, fifty years ago. Bernstein set the standard with West Side Story, while shows like Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd and Lloyd Webber’s own Sunset Boulevard have raised the bar. For The Woman in White, music students might consider the following questions:

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Focus on stage energy and pace when watching The Woman in White. To what extent are the production’s dynamics dictated by the music’s tempo markings? How far are

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Why do you think Andrew Lloyd Webber shuns the traditional overture in favour of a prologue that is more Benjamin Britten than Irving Berlin? (The atmosphere of Walter Hartwright’s encounter with the Signalman would not be out of place in an opera like The Turn of the Screw!) What are the musical reasons for portraying the villainous Count Fosco of Wilkie Collins’s original as a darkly comic figure? (There are parallels with Schönberg & Boublil’s take on the evil Thénardiers of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables.) How does the show’s musical structure help propel us through the 600 pages of Wilkie Collins’s novel in 2 hours? (Leitmotif and recurring melodies are quicker and often more powerful than words for conveying emotion and inner moods.) The role of the chorus in The Woman in White is less central to its drama than in some musicals where big company scenes frequently carry the action. However, their contribution to certain passages is musically and dramatically crucial. How does the chorus enrich such scenes as the harvest (Lammastide), the wedding, the streets of London and the asylum?

ever-present musical score? (Focus, for example, on the early number Parlour Games, in which Marian Halcombe and Mr Fairlie welcome Walter Hartwright to Limmeridge House. This section has to carry an extraordinary amount of vital exposition. Even the most masterly of non-musical playwrights would struggle to convey this to an audience with the economy and clarity that Zippel achieves in four minutes of memorable material where bright, witty rhymes hold the attention throughout.)

Teachers of English might approach the production from a different angle altogether. The 19th Century novel has been a staple of the stage musical for over forty-five years. From Oliver! to Jekyll & Hyde, no other literary era has been so heavily explored by the writers of modern musical theatre. Students might usefully consider why this should be.

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The Woman in White is a classic Victorian melodrama whose atmosphere, if not its plot, is strongly redolent of Dickens and Hardy. What are the elements that make this particular novel so suitable for adaptation into a romantic musical? (The tale’s colourful, uncomplicated characters; its heightened romance; the emotional rollercoaster and quickening pace as the melodrama unfolds…) The task of filleting Wilkie Collins’s complex novel and shaping it for the stage has been shared by the Charlotte Jones and David Zippel, who provide respectively the book (i.e. the dramatic scenario) and lyrics. Have they been helped or limited by the show’s

An educational group theatre visit need not be preceded by a vast shopping list of things to look out for. Teachers can trust students to enjoy the experience on its own merits – there is plenty of educational value in that alone. However, it can sometimes pay dividends to provide young theatregoers with a few markers to look out for during the performance, and these ideas are offered in that spirit. Mark Valencia Head of Drama and Theatre Studies Southend High School for Boys, Essex

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Angela Christian as Anne Catherick, the woman in white. Original production photography by Manual Harlan

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