Making Dickie Happy
Making Dickie Happy By Jeremy Kingston
Young Noel Coward and his boyfriend, Tono, young 'Dickie' Mountbatten and a naval chum, and youngish Agatha Christie, mysteriously alone and using another name, all find themselves at an hotel on an island off the Devon coast soon after the end of the First World War.
The results of this accidental gathering are at the heart of Jeremy Kingston's new play, whose premiere coincides with the 25th anniversary of Mountbatten's death. The weekend is fictitious, the people real; this look at relationships, marriages, engagements, promises, hellos and goodbyes is never less than fascinating.
Jeremy Kingston is a theatre critic on The Times, and before that wrote for Punch magazine. His first play, No Concern of Mine (with John Fraser and Alan Dobie) was at the Westminster Theatre. Signs of the Times with Kenneth More and Liza Goddard ran at the Vaudeville Theatre for six months. Oedipus was originally staged at the King's Head with Nicky Henson in the title role; in 2003 it was very successfully revived at the Rosemary Branch in a double bill with Sophocles' Oedipus directed by Robert Gillespie, Jeremy has also written novels and children's stories.
Robert Gillespie is an actor/director/writer and now producer of Jane Nightwork Productions, who has worked all his life in theatre, and for over thirty years on TV, mainly in sit-coms, he starred as Dudley Rush in five series of Keep It In The Family which was specially written for him for Thames TV. Theatrewise he has worked with Joan Littlewood, Peter Hall, the RSC and at the Royal Court. He has directed at six Dublin Festivals, in the West End, on Broadway, in Tel Aviv and on the London Fringe. He wrote for That Was The Week That Was and has also written My Heart, a play about death.
The Rosemary Branch, under the artistic direction of Cecilia Darker and well known actress, Cleo Sylvestre, has been putting on plays in its theatre upstairs for over eight years. Its ambitious programme has included everything from opera and serious classics to musicals and contemporary drama, all of which are enjoyed by a loyal and enthusiastic audience.
The cast included: Robert Forknall as Noel Coward; Hywel John as Lord Louis (Dickie) Mountbatten; Caroline Wildi as Agatha Christie; David Peto as Tono; Matt Reeves as J-Boy and Rob Pomfret as Cyril.
Below is a selection of photographs from the play:
