Girlfriend, a 1970 play by David Percival
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David Percival, who is thirty years old, was born and
educated in Carlisle and took a degree in English at Durham. He
has taught at a number of schools in England and in the Sudan;
during the last six years he has been teaching at the Granfell
School in Aldgate. "Girlfriend" is his first play to be
produced.
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Vivian Matalon studied acting in New York under Sanford
Meisner and Martha Graham, also at the Neighbourhood Playhouse.
In 1960 he directed his first West End play, "The Admiration of
Life" at the Arts Theatre, and has since directed many
productions including "Season of Good Will", "The Chinese Prime
Minister", "The Glass Menagerie", the Noel Coward trilogy "Suite
in Three Keys" and "After the Rain", which he also directed on
Broadway in 1967.
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Girlfriend Newspaper Reviews |
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(1) The Sunday Times, 22 February 1970
Scandal and concern
THEATRE . HAROLD HOBSON
LAST WEEK London ought to have discovered a new young dramatist
of notable promise. This is David Percival, whose first produced
play, Girlfriend, appeared at the Apollo Theatre, and got pretty
much the same reception as Harold Pinter's " The Birthday Party "
in 1958.
" Girlfriend " is a piece of midsummer madness set in a
particularly snowbound December. In the Masons' house in the
country the central heating and the windows behave with such
perversity that the one cannot be turned off and the others
cannot be opened. In the resulting tropical heat no one's
judgment is quite sane. When the Masons' son, Lorn, who has
remained a bachelor till the age of thirty, brings home as his
fiancée someone dressed rather ambiguously, Lettice and George
Mason, but especially Lettice, are in just the right unnerved
condition to let their imaginations take off into the most
alarming suspicions.
Such a theme, which is firmly founded in the facts of modern
life as seen in the King's Road, is liable to make me feel
uncomfortable, but Mr Percival handles it with enviable
lightness. He makes many excellent jokes against horror of the
middle class when faced with the unusual, jokes that Margaret
Leighton (whose beauty and pathos I have always admired) handles
with the expertise, the delicate gradations within carefully
controlled range, of a great comedian. She is as marvellous to
look at as she is amusing to hear. Her companions, John
Standing, Alan MacNaughtan and Michel des Barres, play with an
equal finesse. They exploit the humours of embarrassment and
mutual misunderstanding (for Lorn and his fiancée have not the
remotest idea what fantastic notions have got into their elders'
heads) with the conviction that comes only from perfect
professional ease.
Mr Percival is new to the West End, and there are mistakes,
such as the telephone call, but his play is neatly constructed,
wittily written, rooted in contemporary life, and consummately
acted. Vivian Matalon has directed it adroitly, cunningly
implying that the story is not quite what it seems by making his
actors talk about the heat without showing any signs of feeling
it.
Perhaps it is not surprising that in some quarters the play
has been received with cries of outrage. England is still
Victorian at heart, fearing the appearance of scandal more than
the reality. As Macaulay said, there is nothing quite so
ridiculous as the British people in a mood of moral indignation,
for then they have an infallible talent for seeing every bush a
bear. But it would be a great pity if Mr Percival were to become
the discouraged victim of this national aberration.
(2) The Stage, circa March 1970
Margaret Leighton shines in brilliant new comedy
By R.B. Marriott
IT IS EXTREMELY, indeed sweltering, hot in the charmingly modern
home of George and Lettice Mason. The heating has gone wrong;
not in the usual way of fading away, but by increasing every
minute. And nothing can be done about it. Nothing can be done,
either, about Lorn Mason's friend, whom he brings to meet his
parents. To George and Lettice the sex of the friend, Jo, is, to
say the least, ambiguous. They incline to opt for the visitor
being a boy. All this is an excellent start to " Girlfriend," at
the Apollo, a first play by David Percival. The development
though slight is adroit and highly amusing.
The torrid atmosphere of the Mason house, while providing
material for some of the light witty fun, is an ingenious way of
creating atmosphere for the exotic sexual implications of the
comedy. Within this extraordinary atmosphere, blazing away in
mid-December with snow falling outside, the extraordinary
personality of Jo and Lorn's already revealed leaning towards
homosexuality, become perfectly normal. Which, I take it, is the
point of " Girlfriend." It is the persons and their relationship
that matter, not the particular sex or kind of sex involved. Boy
can meet boy just as normally as boy meets girl.
The father, a schoolmaster, is easy-going, ready to take
things as they are if they seem all right. No need to probe too
deeply. Mother, middle-class to her finger tips, is intolerant,
doesn't want to lose her son to anyone, girl or boy. The wiles
Lettice Mason uses in her efforts to discover the true sexual
identity of Jo, and at last to come to some sort of grip with a
situation that once horrifies and fascinates her, are finely
devised and manipulated.
THE CHARACTERS
All the characters steadily engage one's interest, although
I would have liked them to have been drawn with more depth and
colouring. The dialogue is a delight to listen to: gently
comical, always perfectly in character, dotted with surprises,
and richly intelligent.
As Lettice, Margaret Leighton gives a brilliant performance,
light as air but firmly wrought, witty in every gesture, word and
look, entrancingly funny as the character becomes more and more
serious about her investigation into Jo's personality. Alan Mac
Naughton as George is splendid too, providing his own riches of
comedy playing, and, along with Miss Leighton, giving a shining
lesson in timing and unforced authority. John Standing, I
thought, made Lorn rather a dull fellow; it would be better if he
used his charm to greater and more precise effect. Michel des
Barres, long haired, sharp featured, in clothes which might be
worn by either sex anywhere in town, is ideally cast as Joe being
neither too feminine or too masculine and always seeming quite
natural, never a scrap bizarre.
"Girlfriend" has been directed with a keen eye for its
values by Vivian Matalon, in a striking setting by Carl Toms.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CAST ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
" GIRLFRIEND "
Play by David Percival, presented
by Michael Codron at the Apollo on
February 17. Designed by Carl Toms;
lighting by Robert Bryan; stage manager,
Martin Beckwith.
Lettice Mason ....... Margaret Leighton
George Mason ........ Alan MacNaughton
Lorn Mason .......... John Standing
Jo Delaney .......... Michel des Barres
Directed by Vivian Matalon
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From an e-mail from David Percival, dated Monday, July 18, 2011, after
I'd erroneously listed the Stage review as having come from
a magazine:
"I forgot to say that The Stage is newsprint. It is the
weekly paper consulted by those looking for a job in the theatre
or those offering work. It advises what is in production, what
is waiting for a theatre, and does reviews of each new play that
opens. As my producer said at the time, "The Stage is useless as
publicity for it has only a tiny readership compared with the
national daily papers". There was an excellent review by Hilary
Spurling in The Spectator, in March '70, but I no longer can find
it. I wonder if it exists on the web. I might try and see if I
can find it."
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