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3. “And then the lover ... with a woeful ballad”
Longstanding BATS member, Denis Brooke, might be said to have had three great loves in his life: the theatre, art, and sailing. He managed to combine the three in a most interesting way, and often to the great benefit of the BATS.
After serving as a Royal Navy officer from 1940 to 1946, Denis trained as an art teacher in 1947, and taught at the Downs School from 1950 until 1979. He joined the BATS in 1951, and besides being Secretary at various times between 1969 and 1979 and a committee member, has appeared in 50 plays out of a possible 107. His first part was a young twit character in the 1952 farcical comedy “Flat To Let”. He appeared in the Silver Jubilee production, “And So To Bed”, in which he was required to sing and play the lute. The singing presented no problem but the lute playing was mimed whilst Jean Tucknott played in the wings. From the many parts he has played for the BATS Denis singled out two as those he remembers with most affection. In the 1977 production of “My Three Angels” he played Joseph, one of a trio of convicts on a ‘Devil’s Island’ who make the Christmas of a struggling shopkeeper and his family much more happy, by disposing of the relatives who are causing the problem. Although the three convicts (the others were Gordon Leonard and Gerald Witts) probably had the most fun because they worked closely together as a team, this was a play which all the cast enjoyed immensely. The delightful South American setting by Mary Batty probably had much to do with the atmosphere, and something of this is captured in the photograph on the Belfry wall. The other favourite of Denis is “‘The Comedy Of Errors” in the Manor Gardens, in which he played one of the Dromio twins, the other being Nick Bloomfield who, Denis is pleased to point out, was almost 39 years his junior. In the 1960 Silver Jubilee play he appeared as a 17 year old when he was 40. So much for the East Sussex drama adviser who told an audience of amateur actors that one cannot play a part younger than oneself. (To be fair to him he was talking about the limitations of make up).
When Denis joined the BATS in the fifties, they were struggling to reassert themselves after the war years and to change the unfortunate reputation previously described. Very definite efforts were being made to improve matters by better liaison with officials at the De La Warr, and a programme for members of lectures on make-up, movement, and stage techniques. An under 21 club was proposed, and in 1953 a Public Relations Officer was appointed. However acting members still kept resigning and the Chairman complained that it was difficult, if not impossible, to find anyone willing to take officerships. The Society continued to mount one or two plays each year at the De La Warr Pavilion, and in 1956 a big effort was made for the BATS’ 21st birthday.
During these years repertory theatre continued at the Pavilion, and amateur actors were sometimes used to make up the casts. Denis Brooke played in about half a dozen of Dickie Burnett’s Penguin productions. The payment was £25 for expenses, and Denis has vivid memories of the first play in which he appeared. The play was “The Queen’s Husband” in which he was a revolutionary. Peggy Paige (Mrs Burnett) was playing the Queen and inserted some lines which had been cut. Denis dried and was supplied with a prompt which he knew was nonsense and didn’t respond. The prompt supplied some more help to like effect. Bob Howard playing the King stepped in and took the cast back to a previous point in the play. Denis was then dreading a repeat of the whole incident but that didn’t happen. He admired Bob’s professional saving of the situation.
During his appearances with the Penguins Denis was appropriately cast as a RN officer in “Seagulls Over Sorrento”, and played with several people who are nationally known in the theatre: Ronnie Pember, Donald Pickering and Julia Foster. Two others, Michael Napier-Brown and Vilma Hollingbury, later ran a touring repertory company.
In 1963 the BATS took over a festival of one-act plays, from the Association of Bexhill Citizens, which later evolved into a three-act play festival. This event received enough support from local groups in most years for it to continue until the early 1970s, when it finally petered out through lack of competition.
It is surprising to find that Denis Brooks produced few plays for the BATS, including “The Shop At Sly Corner”. This was memorable for what appeared to the audience an inspired performance as the antique dealer by Noel Armstrong. He was in reality terrifying his fellow performers by making up the lines as he went along. Denis contends that this made the rest of the cast forget their nerves and give a positive performance as a team, and that Lucy Lea as Noel’s sister gave a fine performance. Noel was replaced by Alan Livermore when the play was repeated for the three-act play festival at the De La Warr shortly afterwards.
In view of Denis’s undoubted artistic talent it is even more surprising that again he had actually designed only two sets for the BATS up to our Jubilee year. These were the 1983 “Charley’s Aunt” and the 1985 “Importance Of Being Earnest” with which he was well pleased. He has however designed sets for other groups in the town on several occasions, and has vastly improved the appearance of many BATS sets by his in situ decoration. He is particularly fond of giving a set an appropriate ‘aged’ look instead of the pristine appearance of a recent visit by the interior decorators. One set that he gave considerable authenticity to was that for the second “Ghost Train”. His design talent has also been applied to costume when he designed those worn by the cast of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in 1980 and the costumes for the 1983 “The Owl And The Pussycat Went To See..”. This was one of the rare occasions when he sang in a BATS play.
Denis did not see the costumes worn that he had designed for “The Dream”, because in 1980, having retired from teaching, he fulfilled a dream to sail the ocean blue wherever the mood took him. He sailed away for much longer than a year and a day in his little craft named “Kitty Of Leigh”. Across the Atlantic and through to the Pacific on a journey of 2 years and four months. After some delay in Tangier with a damaged boom fitting, and with various changes of crew members, he crossed the Atlantic and visited the West Indies. Passing through the Panama Canal he went on to the Galapagos Islands, the Marquesas, the Society Isles, Tonga and the Cook Islands, before sailing to New Zealand where he stayed far a year before returning to England by air.
In New Zealand he resumed his dramatic activities by joining the Opotiki Drama Group and produced a one act play by John Mortimer, “Knightsbridge” which reached the semi final of a drama festival. He also designed the set for, and stage managed, “Bedroom Farce”, produced by Doug Atwell, an ex-National Theatre actor, now a teacher at Opotiki College. For Denis’ later career see 1997.
Meanwhile, back in l959, the first BATS monthly Newsletter was produced and distributed to members, and this of course continues to be produced each month for the information of all our current membership.
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Gaslight, 1962: Leslie Hood, Marion Cope, Charles Fox, Sheila Harper,
Mayoress, Alan Livermore, John Cannan, Jean Tucknott |
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