Page 11 - Palace Memories Gerald Jervis

Palace Theatre Memories Redditch Heritage

anthem and “I Want to be Happy”). It may sound undemocratic, but we learned to
size up the capabilities of each week’s bill by the way they were dressed. If they were
smartly attired, they were generally good performers. If they were shabby, then their
performance was likely to be of a rude nature, one way and another.

There were a certain number of what were really circus acts, especially during the
winter months. Circuses, of course, do not “tent” during the winter, when high winds
and snowstorms would play havoc with the Big Top. There were two visits from a lady
who had a thick rope hitched to the back of the circle. With a parasol in her hand, she
walked up it from the stage; wearing, one-noticed special shoes with divided soles,
rather like pigs` trotters. Having reached the top, she turned, and with a cry slid
quickly back to the stage, standing up.

I have an idea she was on the bill the week we had the performing elephant. A fairly
small one, mind you, but indubitably an elephant. This animal could not be persuaded
to walk out onto the stage until the stage crew had reinforced the structure with pit
props.

Not Just Variety

But there was not only variety. A troupe of actors came and performed two split
weeks: “Smilin` Through”, “Love on the Dole” and “While Parents Sleep”, for three
days each, and “Maria Marten”, I think it was, for two days, one each side of Good
Friday. A distinguished looking old actor called Hamilton Deane brought his own
company for a similar split week: “Dracula” and “Raffles”. He used his own adaptation
of “Dracula”, in which he played the doctor, armed with ratsbane and a crucifix, and
the same script was used by Franklin Dyall and the Alexandra (Birmingham) company,
a year or two ago.

There was also a visit by an opera company, who gave eight operas during the week;
a different one each night and a Wednesday and Saturday matinee. I can only
remember six titles, but they certainly did “Faust”, “Carmen”, “Il Travatore”, “La
Traviata”, “Tannhauser”, and “The Lily of Killarney”.

The latter was a popular choice for Saturday night; it is based on Dion Boucicault`s
“The Colleen Bawn”, with music by Sir Julius Benedict, and contains “The Moon Has
Raised Her Lamp Above”. Together with Balfe`s “The Bohemian Girl” (I Dreamt that
I Dwelt in Marble Halls”, “When |Other Lips”, and “The Heart Bow`d Down”) and
Wallace’s “Maritana” (Scenes That Are Brightest”, and “Let Me Like A Soldier Fall”) it
used to be in the repertoire of all touring opera companies, the Carl Rosa and such,
and I often think it is a pity that these three works are rarely, if ever, heard nowadays.
An opera- goer who has never heard of them, like a play –goer who has never seen
“Charley`s Aunt”, Tilly of “Bloomsbury” or “Maria Marten”, seems to me in danger of
knowing his X Y Z without knowing his A B C .

I only saw “Faust”, as it happens. They were performing once nightly, of course, and
the prices had been doubled, becoming 4s., 3s. and 2s. The regular orchestra had also
been doubled in numbers to eight or ten. At the time I thought it was a reasonable
performance. The Marguerite was undeniably elderly and someone had forgotten to
oil her spinning wheel so that her song as she spun became a duet for two sopranos.

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