Writing for Fun
September 2015
Looking Back - Reg Pound
Look at the picture – you see a woman of uncertain age and of not indifferent looks.
The caption tells you she is Joan Littlewood outside the Theatre Royal, Stratford East in the 1970's.
What it doesn't tell you is that she had reigned there since the early 1950's.
Stratford East was appended to the Theatre Royal title to distinguish it from any other Theatre Royal in London. The East bit was added to Stratford so as not to confuse it with Stratford-on-Avon. An unlikely mistake to happen in its early years.
Later it also gained the name Theatre Royal, Stratford-atte-Bow, based on an old map reference, but Stratford East has endured. What has also endured is the legend of Joan Littlewood's Workshop Theatre.
It was the breeding ground for many actors and actresses who became household names in national theatre, films and television.
Fifty years on, their legacy is, and will be, greater than that claimed by the recent Olympics. The rubble is building work resulting from damage caused by bombs and developers.
Seeing and reading plays at the time gave me an education denied me by the war and I am reminded of many of the plays I saw there. I don't remember them all – it was too long ago. But two that leave a lasting impression were 'A Taste of Honey' and 'Oh What a lovely War', each of which were transferred to a West End theatre and also made into films.
I didn't know then that Joan Littlewood with her theatre workshop was to become a theatrical legend.
Other different memories invoked by the picture is my time employed by the Clarnico sweet factory. Located then, as with neighbouring factories, on what is now the Olympic Stadium and its surrounds.
I often used to walk to and from work down Angel Lane and across the Hackney Marshes passing the theatre on the way. Nowadays, even with a ladder and some glasses, you can't see to Hackney Marshes, there are too many tower blocks in between. Angel Lane and Clarnico's survived the bombs but not commerce, planners, developers and the Olympics.
The theatre is still there. I would like to think that in fifty years time even if the building is sacrificed, and the accommodation built for Olympic 'heroes?' has become slums, the spirit of Joan Littlewood remains, and that one is still able to buy mint creams for which the Clamico brand was renowned.
To quote one of the workshop's most famous plays 'Fings ain't what they used to be'.
Perhaps it's better if they are not, but sometimes I wish they were.
A Curtain Call:
A sculpture of Joan Littlewood is planned to be unveiled in the Theatre Square on the morning of October 4th 2015.
