Work Of The Month: Fallen Angels
As Fallen Angels is performed in Aldeburgh, Robert Hazle explores the controversial original production and its brush with censorship.
Whether “Cancel Culture” exists now or not, it certainly did in the theatre for most of Coward’s life. All plays had to be cleared by the Lord Chamberlain who could censor any deemed unsuitable for the public. One such play that risked censure was 1925’s Fallen Angels.
Last week I saw Aldeburgh Classic Theatre’s very good production of Fallen Angels at the Jubilee Hall in Aldeburgh. Directed by Richard Blaine and featuring Charlotte Parry in the lead role of Julia Sterrol, It was a brisk and energetic production that made the most of the humour and farcical nature of the plot. Fallen Angels is a lot of fun with strong, witty and passionate female leads. It’s perhaps difficult now to imagine just how scandalous it was when it arrived on the London stage. We spoke to the director of ACT’s Fallen Angels, Richard Blaine, about the new production and whether, nearly 100 years later, the play still had the power to shock:
“What we found, as with our production of Blithe Spirit in 2019, was that it sits quite happily in our own times, and with our own mores - and that some people are as shocked today by the independence and verve of Coward’s women as many were in his own time.”
Fallen Angels was written in 1923 as the post-war Jazz Age was beginning to flourish but it was not performed until 1925, as producers - in this case Anthony Princep of the Globe Theatre, raided Coward’s back catalogue after the success of The Vortex. Even before it opened, though, it caused controversy. The title had already been used for a successful play by Michael Morton and Peter Traill for Lena Ashwell and her company which had been performed only months earlier at the Century Theatre and was eyeing up a West End run. Reports in the theatre press suggested Coward’s title would be changed, but it was not. There were reports that Morton was particularly upset, leading to Coward writing to him to apologise, claiming that the management would not let him. Morton is best remembered now for writing the first stage adaptation of an Agatha Christie novel - Alibi, based on The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, in 1928.
Coward’s Fallen Angels is a witty comedy about two wives awaiting the arrival of a mutual old flame, In some ways it feels like an early prototype for Private Lives but this play stands on its own as an exploration of two very ‘modern’ women and their clash with the social mores of the time.
Rowland Thomas Baring, 2nd Earl of Cromer in 1952. Photograph: Walter Stoneman (c) NPG
The Lord Chamberlain, Lord Cromer, was reluctant to approve the play unedited, taking particular exception to the open discussion of pre-marital sex. To find out what he thought, I dipped into Steve Nicholson’s fascinating study The Censorship of British Drama 1900 – 1968:
“Like most of that author’s plays, it is unpleasant, but not half as much so, to my mind, as other plays of his”
Cromer allowed it to pass due to its “light and unreal and humorous” treatment of the subject matter but required some amendments:
“Their absence will help render the atmosphere of the play less objectionable to some people who disapprove of quote unnecessary frankness of expression among women.”
But the reaction from some people was even stronger…
SPOTLIGHT ON… The Lord Chamberlain
Scott Russell as Lord Dramaleigh in the original D’oyly Carte production of Utopia, Ltd.
If you’re not familiar with the position of Lord Chamberlain, its role as theatre censor was established in 1737 when parliament passed the Licensing Bill 1737. The Lord Chamberlain could prevent plays from being produced and theatres risked prosecution for performing a play without approval. The law was relaxed in the Theatres Act of 1843 and the Lord Chamberlain could only prohibit performances it was “fitting for the preservation of good manners, decorum or of the public peace so to do". And so it continued. Later that century, W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan would satirise the role by including it in their satire on British exceptionalism, Utopia, Ltd:
Lord Dramaleigh: Court reputations I revise,/ And presentations scrutinise,/ New plays I read with jealous eyes,/ And purify the Stage”
Rowland Thomas Baring, 2nd Earl of Cromer was Lord Chamberlain from 1922 to 1938 (during Coward’s most controversial years) and even appears as a character himself in Mrs Henderson Presents.
In 1968, theatre censorship was abolished and with it the influence of the Lord Chamberlain.
The Public Morality Council campaigned to have Fallen Angels’ license revoked completely, calling it “a revolting sex-play”. I’m not sure the enthusiastic audience at the Jubilee Hall nearly 100 years later in July 2021 would agree. Nor did Cromer, who refused to rethink his decision. Nevertheless, protests continued, even on the last night. In his biography of Coward, Philip Hoare describes Mrs Charles Hornibrook interrupting the second act:
“Ladies and Gentlemen, I wish to protest. This play should not go unchallenged.”
It was too little, too late. She was escorted from the building.
It can be easy to forget now just how modern and forward thinking Coward’s writing was at the time, especially in relation to ‘modern’ marriages.
“And what “modern” marriages they are”, explains Richard Blaine, “or perhaps what universal aspects we discover. After a honeymoon period of about two years, the fireworks have subsided, and the two couples are more companions than lovers. As Julia describes it, quite surprisingly graphically even today, with their traditional English husbands, sex is not a joy (“It’s so uncomfortable, passion”). Add to this the fact that after five years of a traditional upper middle class English marriage of the early 20th Century there are no children, and a picture emerges of women very much in control of both their lives and their relationships. Another line of dialogue that supports this view, and must have shocked back then, comes when Julia tells Jane they must be careful - “I’m always careful!” Two married women, then, veterans of high sexual passion prior to their weddings, in control of their lives, their perfectly nice husbands, and their contraception - what could possibly go wrong?”
Best, Bankhead and Trevor in the original production. Photo: The Theatre World and Stage Review
Reviews for the original production were divided between the appreciative and the scandalised, which did nothing to harm ticket sales. Summarising the causes of this response was Ivor Brown in the Saturday Review on 9 May 1925:
Fallen Angels has created a bit of a fuss and it is easy to see the reason. Mr Coward has employed the French farcical idiom for the English "legitimate" stage. If the second act of this piece, which shows two English wives waiting for their mutual lover and getting mildly drunk while he dallies, had been condensed into a ten-minutes sketch for a revue, little more would have been heard about it. If Fallen Angels had been written by Sacha Guitry and brought over here as part of the family luggage, it would have been acclaimed as witty, airy, deliciously Gallic and all the rest of it. If its plain-speaking had been wiped out, its central situation had been softened, and its hard, crisp dialogue had been reduced to the language of leers and winks, it would have been acclaimed as a jolly English farce. But since it is an English essay in the French mode a cry of shocked surprise has gone up.
Kate Hunter and Charlotte Parry in Fallen Angels, Aldeburgh Classic Theatre. Photograph Martin Smith
The original cast featured well-known actresses Tallulah Bankhead and Edna Best, with a brief appearance from Austin Trevor (who, Agatha Christie fans will know, was the first person to play Hercule Poirot on screen). The latest production features a cast of Charlotte Parry, Kate Hunter and Julian Harries in those roles. The play also features another typically Cowardian scene-stealing servant, Saunders. Originally played by Mona Harrison, Aldeburgh audiences enjoyed Ashleigh Sendin in the role. Speaking about the rehearsal process and whether concessions had to be made to help 21st century audiences understand the context, Richard Blaine reassured us that the play speaks for itself:
“In rehearsing the piece, we let the text itself lead us. Rather like Sir Peter Hall’s unlocking of the integrity of line itself as Shakespeare’s metier, rather than getting bogged down in word-by-word descriptive acting, we found the music, pace, and attack of Coward’s dialogue to be our perfect guide to a lightness and directness of playing style. I’m very glad to say that the production seems to have found great favour with both public and professionals who have attended, and has launched our summer season in sparkling, champagne style.”
it seems Fallen Angels continues to be a hit with audiences. Perhaps we will see it in the West End again soon?
Thanks for reading our Archive Blog – we hope you enjoyed this look at Fallen Angels, then and now. Over the summer we will have guest posts inspired by the Art & Style Exhibition at the Guildhall Art Gallery. We’ll be back sharing more treasures from the archive in September.
Fallen Angels, produced by Aldeburgh Classic Theatre at the Jubilee Hall runs until July 31st. Director - Richard Blaine; Designer - Mark Sterling; Wardrobe Design - Miri Birch; Original Music - Ashleigh Sendin; Cast: Charlotte Parry, Ben Elder, Kate Hunter, Oliver Stoney, Ashleigh Sendin, Julian Harries
The Censorship of British Drama 1900 – 1968, Volume 1: 1900-1932 is published by the Society For Theatre Research.
For more about Coward and Censorship, check back here later in the year. To explore the Noël Coward Archive, book a visit to the Noël Coward Room & Library.
