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Roger
Clarke writes: For some time I have run The Other RSC
Pub Theatre at The Station Pub in Sutton Coldfield but it seemed
sensible now to being it under the Behind The Arras banner so now we
have our own theatre . . . and as anyone who has been to a pub theatre
knows they are intimate spaces where the barrier between actor and
audience, seating and stage becomes very blurred . . .
Ex-German soldier Wolfgang Meissler, played by
Gerry Hinks, (left) has a secret to reveal to Cpl Frederick
Salisbury VC, played by Keith Minshull. BEHIND The Arras's own theatre has pulled
off a little coup of its own by booking not only a West End play but
also the majority of the West End cast – a dream production you might
say. And you would be right.
Confessions of Honour,
a military drama which is both moving and funny, came about as the
result of . . . a dream. Rugeley writer and actor Gerry Hinks, who runs
the Opus Theatre Company, said: “It just came to me one night. I could
see an empty room with no windows just a door and a single light bulb in
the middle. There was an old man in the middle of the room
and a German opened the door and walked in and said ‘You didn't win
that!' Then I woke up in a cold sweat with my wife Teresa asking what
was wrong.” The dream had made its mark though and Gerry knew
there was a play in there somewhere. He carried out research with the
help of Willie Turner at the Staffordshire Regiment Museum at
Whittington Barracks and 18 months later the first draft arrived. The play eventually had its premiere in Stafford
in 2007 and went on a successful Midland tour collecting excellent
reviews – I
The reviews must have been noted.
Gerry, who has appeared in plays at the Suffolk
Summer Theatre at Southwold for the past 17 years, had just finished a
production there when he was approached to take the play to the West End
and it was booked in for a successful run in at the Jermyn Street
Theatre. Cpl Frederick Salisbury VC, played
by Keith Minshull (left), hears the secret ex-German soldier
Wolfgang Meissler has carried with him since the Second World War. It meant a return to the West
End for Gerry who had previously appeared in Lady Windermere's Fan
for Bill Kenwright at the Haymarket and a first time for fellow actor
Keith Minshull. The play is set in recent
times and all takes place in an ante-room at
Whittington Barracks where Second World War veteran Cpl Frederick
Salisbury (Minshull) is waiting to hand over his Victoria Cross in a
special ceremony to his former regiment. Gerry, who also plays
the Rev Graham Broadbent in Coronation Street,
had no military experience himself in writing
the play, just missing out in the final selection for National Service
when only one in 10 of even those passed A1 were selected. “I had schoolmates who got in
but I didn't. I had wanted to go into the Royal Army Medical Corps. I
didn't have any ambitions of being a doctor but I was in the St John's
Ambulance so it seemed a logical idea – plus I didn't want to be in a
tank or on the front line in case of war!” The play has evolved from its
first production when it had a cast of four with Regimental
Sergeant Major Willie Turner's part vanishing which means a promotion
from Sgt Karen Baker gets a promotion to RSM in what is now a three
hander. Confessions of Honour is on at The Other
RSC, upstairs at The Station Pub, Station Street, Sutton Coldfield (next
to the station not surprisingly) on Wednesday and Thursday, October 19
and 20, at 7.45. Price £6. Further details 0788 682 0535 or
roger.clarke@behindthearras.com.
On a technical note the play has been
available to amateur companies through Gerry for some time but it has
now been published by New Theatre Publications where, according to
Gerry, the rights, at £35, are little more than a third of those charged
by more traditional publishers. It requires minimal scenery and a cast of two older males and one female with all the action taking place in an ante-room at Whittington Barracks.
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gave
it four or five stars in The Birmingham Post and Evening Mail I seem to
remember.