John Hall (English playwright)

Hall was educated at Queens College, Oxford,File:OxfordMAJohnHall.jpg

where he studied under C. S. Lewis. Study for his MA was interrupted by service in the RNVR.  For this he studied Japanese and worked in Intelligence at Bletchley Park.Statement of Service, Royal Naval Service Records

John Clifford HALL

DOB: 26 June 1925, Saltford, Somerset

Official service number: JX 679401. Promoted to Officer in the RNVR: 03-03-44

Date of commencement of service: 3 November 1943

Date and cause of discharge: 30 December 1946. Released in Clas "A".

Rank or Rating held: Ordinary Seaman, Temporary Midshipman, Temporary Acting Sub-Lieutenant, Temporary Sub-Lieutenant

Source: Departmental Records

Ministry of Defence

Bourne Avenue

Hayes

Middlesex

UB3 1RF

Accessed 29 May 1997{{Cite web |title=John Hall: An Inventory of His Collection at the Harry Ransom Center |url=https://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadid=00891 |access-date=2021-10-10 |website=norman.hrc.utexas.edu}}

His first produced play World Behind Your Back, was in collaboration with actor William Eedle, at the Mercury Theatre in London in 1952.{{Cite news|date=10 July 1952|title=Review: World Behind Your Back|work=The Stage, London|url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/search/results/1952-07-08/1952-07-14?RetrieveCountryCounts=False&PublicTag=theatre%20review|access-date=25 October 2021}}{{Cite book|last=Wearing|first=J. P.|title=The London Stage 1950–1959: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers|year=2014|isbn=|location=London|pages=698|language=English}}

Albert Finney starred in one of his most successful plays The Lizard on the Rock, at Birmingham Repertory Theatre{{rp|dust jacket}}{{Cite web|last=V&A Images|title=Albert Finney, Rosamund Hall, Lizard on the Rock|url=https://www.vandaimages.com/preview.asp?image=1000LM0241&itemw=4&itemf=0001&itemstep=1&itemx=9|website=V&A Images}}{{Cite web|title=Production of Lizard on the Rock {{!}} Theatricalia|url=https://theatricalia.com/play/6rr/lizard-on-the-rock/production/eyp|access-date=2021-10-10|website=theatricalia.com}} of which Michael Billington wrote: 'Above all, I remember him [Finney] in The Lizard on the Rock by John Hall, which required him to be shot at point-blank range in the stomach: as he suddenly crumpled, uttering cat-like cries, the critic Kenneth Tynan in The Observer described it as "the best fall since Feuillère", who was then queen of the French stage'.{{Cite web|last=Billington|first=Michael|date=29 January 2020|title=A tribute to the four great theatre talents we lost in 2019|url=https://www.countrylife.co.uk/luxury/art-and-antiques/tribute-great-theatre-talents-lost-2019-210638|access-date=2021-10-10|website=Country Life|language=en}}

File:LizardCover.jpg

The Lizard on the Rock was well-received.{{Cite news |last=Gibbs |first=Patrick |date=10 July 1957 |title=New Play of Scope & Power |work=The Daily Telegraph |url=https://www.historic-newspapers.co.uk/old-newspapers/daily-telegraph/ |access-date=14 May 2022}}{{Cite news |last=The Stage |date=18 July 1957 |title=The Lizard on the Rock |work=The Stage |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/ |access-date=14 May 2022}}{{Cite news |last=N.S. |date=11 July 1957 |title=The Lizard on the Rock, John Hall's Tragedy |work=The Manchester Guardian |url=https://theguardian.newspapers.com/ |access-date=14 May 2022}} It is a story based around '...an industrialist – a Senator – who is prospecting for water...'{{Cite news |last=FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT |date=10 July 1957 |title=John Hall's The Lizard on The Rock at Birmingham Rep. |pages=5 |work=The Times (London)}} '...in the Western Australian desert... the central character [is] outwardly a man of success and power, but faced with the collapse of his achievements...'{{Cite news|date=24 January 1957|title=REPERTORY: THREE WORLD PREMIERES FOR BIRMINGHAM|work=The Stage|url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001179/19570718/107/0009|access-date=10 October 2021}} and the realisation that 'Life cannot depend upon "the blandishments of power; the blind man groping among the useless treasure.'"{{rp|34}}{{rp|22}}

Sir John Gielgud was quoted as saying that the play contained 'a great deal of power and originality'.{{Cite book|last=Hall|first=John|title=The Lizard on the Rock|publisher=Methuen & Co. Ltd|year=1956|location=London}}{{rp|at=dust jacket}} and the playwright Christopher Fry wrote: 'Mr Hall's mind is his own; what he has to say is his own...'{{rp|dust jacket}} The review in The Stage for the Birmingham production of the play read: 'an interesting journey through a variety of tense scenes, each peopled with characters that might in turn be the focal point of the play themselves... Mr. Hall... gives them an aura pregnant with possibilities.'{{Cite news|date=18 July 1957|title=The Lizard On The Rock, Review|work=The Stage|url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001179/19570718/107/0009|access-date=10 October 2021}} The International Theatre Annual described the blank verse in The Lizard on the Rock as 'Eliotesque'.{{rp|35}}

Hall wrote his play Exit, Joe, Running influenced by 'the marked contrasts of life at Oxford... and Keele [Universities]... The leading character – within a few months of leaving academia – writes a paper titled "39 Reasons Why University Is No Good"'.{{Cite book|last=White|first=Leonard|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/53030738|title=Armchair theatre : the lost years|date=2003|publisher=Kelly Publications|isbn=1-903053-18-8|location=Tiverton|oclc=53030738}}

Hall considered the most important playwrights of the 1960s were '...Harold Pinter, Christopher Fry, Robert Bolt, John Arden, John Osborne, Arnold Wesker, Peter Schaeffer and Charles Wood'. He was influenced by Christopher Fry during the resurrection of verse drama, and by Anton Chekhov. One of his own favourite plays was Everly, which never got beyond a rehearsed reading. Wrang-Gaites, written for his sons to enjoy,{{Cite book|last=Hall|first=John|title=Wrang-Gaites|publisher=The Lizard Press|year=1973|location=Kirkhill, Dyce.|language=English}}{{rp|3}} was originally performed by the York Theatre Royal Activists in 1973{{rp|5}} and was later set to music at Chichester University.{{Cite journal|last=Pierce|first=Parker|date=27 November 2017|title=Painted musical representation and mnemonics|url=https://silo.tips/download/cim04-conference-on-interdisciplinary-musicology|journal=CIM04 Conference on Interdisciplinary Musicology|pages=102}} Of Wrang-Gaites, playwright Christopher Fry wrote: 'It is as though the traditional Mummer's Play of St George and the Dragon had spread and ramified and leapt into the twentieth century.'{{rp|7}}

• 1957    The Strangers  –  Bristol Old Vic{{cite web |title=UoB Calmview5: Search results |url=https://calmview.bham.ac.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=XMS38/4567 |website=calmview.bham.ac.uk |access-date=10 October 2021}}{{Cite web|title=Programme for 'The Strangers' by John Hall|url=https://www.mercurytheatre.co.uk/mercury-voices/programme-for-the-strangers-by-john-hall/|access-date=2021-10-10|website=Mercury Theatre|language=en-GB}}
• 1957    The Lizard on the Rock –  With Albert Finney (Augsberg theatre and Birmingham repertory company){{cite web |title=John Hall's The Lizard on the Rock at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, photo Lisel Haas. England, 1957 {{!}} V&A Images |url=https://www.vandaimages.com/1000LM0236-John-Hall's-The-Lizard-on-the-Rock-at-the.html |website=V & A Images |access-date=10 October 2021 |language=en}}
• 1958    The Holiday  –  No 1 tour with Sylvia Syms, Sian Phillips and Peter O’Toole
• 1959    The Net  –  Harrogate Opera House
• 1959    A Pennyworth of Love   –  Northampton Rep. theatre
• 1962    The Lizard on the Rock{{Cite web|title=Phillips, Siân 1934– {{!}} Encyclopedia.com|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/phillips-sian-1934|access-date=2021-10-11|website=www.encyclopedia.com}}{{Cite web|title=Schedule – BBC Programme Index|url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/service_light_programme/1962-06-04|access-date=2021-10-11|publisher=BBC}}{{Cite web|title=Dalzell & Beresford Ltd – Dame Siân Phillips|url=https://www.dalzellandberesford.com/client/Dame-Sian_phillips|access-date=2021-10-11|website=dalzellandberesford.com}}  –  tour and London Phoenix theatre with Sian Phillips, John Laurie and Harry Andrews{{Cite news |last=The Times correspondent |date=19 May 1962 |title=Mr. John Hall's Play For The Phoenix |pages=4 |work=The Times (London) |url=https://account.thetimes.co.uk/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240418140913/https://account.thetimes.co.uk/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=18 April 2024 |access-date=15 May 2022}}
• 1963    I, John Brown{{Cite web|title=I, JOHN BROWN with Ian McKellen|url=https://mckellen.com/stage/00141.htm|access-date=2021-10-11|website=mckellen.com|language=en}}{{Cite web|title=Sir Ian McKellen {{!}} Stage {{!}} Plays {{!}}Theatre {{!}} Ipswich|url=https://mckellen.com/stage/index2.htm|access-date=2021-10-11|website=mckellen.com|language=en}}  –  with Sir Ian McKellen, Ipswich Arts theatre
• 1965    Convolvulus{{Cite web|title=Production of Convolvulus {{!}} Theatricalia|url=https://theatricalia.com/play/h3w/convolvulus/production/13nq|access-date=2021-10-11|website=theatricalia.com}}  –  Theatre Royal, Windsor
• 1966    The Little Woman  –  Traverse theatre, Edinburgh{{cite news|title=THE LITTLE WOMAN at the Traverse, Scotland|author=Cordelia Oliver|work=The Guardian|date=12 September 1966|page=7}}
• 1973    Bondi's Dream  –  Pool Theatre, Edinburgh
• 1973    Alva the Widow  –  Netherbow, Edinburgh
• 1974    Grass and Sky  –  Strathclyde University theatre group
• 1976    Skin and Bones  –  Aberdeen University
• 1976    Wrang-Gaites  –  York and Aberdeen student productions
• 1977    Everly  –  workshop production for Scottish society of playwrights
• 1978    Any Horse looks Fast Going Past Trees  –  Lyceum. Edinburgh

• 1961    The Break-Up, starring Rosalie Crutchley and James Donald  –  Play of the Week, ITV
• 1963    The Swindler  –  Armchair theatre, ABC TV
• 1964    Exit Joe, Running,{{Cite web|title=Exit Joe – Running (1964)|url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b713e3e7f|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211010213404/https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b713e3e7f|url-status=dead|archive-date=10 October 2021|access-date=2021-10-10|publisher=British Film Institute|language=en}} starring Tim Preece  –  Armchair theatre, ABC TV
• 1984    Movie Queen,{{Cite web|title=Movie Queen, Toyah Willcox|url=https://toyah.net/tag/movie-queen/|website=Toyah.net}} with Toyah Willcox and Annie Ross –  HTV
• 1985    Child Marlene{{Cite web|title=Child Marlene (1967)|url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b8547d699|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180407105425/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b8547d699|url-status=dead|archive-date=7 April 2018|access-date=2021-10-10|publisher=British Film Institute|language=en}}  –  BBC2, Thirty Minute Theatre
• 1986    The Proposal  –  ITV, Love Story series

• 1982    Chrissie  –  Radio 4
• 1983    Jackie  –  Radio 4, Saturday Night theatre
• 1985    The Gaudy{{Cite web|title=Schedule – BBC Programme Index|url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/service_bbc_radio_three/1985-01-09|access-date=2021-10-11|publisher=BBC}}{{Cite web|title=BBC Radio Drama, Radio 3, 1985, DIVERSITY website|url=http://www.suttonelms.org.uk/r3-1985.html|access-date=2021-10-11|website=suttonelms.org.uk}}  –  Radio 3
• 1985    In the Venn Country{{Cite web|title=radio plays drama, bbc, The Monday Play, DIVERSITY website|url=http://www.suttonelms.org.uk/monday-play.html|access-date=2021-10-11|website=suttonelms.org.uk}}{{Cite web|title=Schedule – BBC Programme Index|url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/service_bbc_radio_fourfm/1987-01-10|access-date=2021-10-11|publisher=BBC}}  –  Radio 4
• 1986    Breakfast at Mother Brown's  –  Radio 4          
• 1987    The Bridge{{Cite news|last=Gillard|first=David|date=16-22 January 1988|title=Hear This! Radio Highlights with David Gillard (Pg 14)|work=Radio Times 16–22 January 1988}}  –  Radio 4
• 1988    The Little House{{Cite web|title=radio plays drama, bbc, Alec Reid, DIVERSITY website|url=http://www.suttonelms.org.uk/alec-reid.html|access-date=2021-10-11|website=suttonelms.org.uk}}  –  Radio 3
• 1989    The Wedding of Jackie{{Cite web|title=radio plays 1990, bbc, radio drama, DIVERSITY WEBSITE, english, british, uk, classic|url=http://www.suttonelms.org.uk/r4-plays-1990.html|access-date=2021-10-11|website=suttonelms.org.uk}}  –  Radio 4

{{reflist}}

• [https://findingaids.library.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_4079906 John Hall Papers] at Columbia University
• [https://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadID=00891 John Hall Collection] at the Harry Ransom Center

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, John}}

Category:1925 births

Category:2001 deaths