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The Potting Shed
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by Graham Greene
Directed by Scott Alan Evans
Januray 20, 26 & 27, 2003
Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th Street
NYC
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| SYNOPSIS |
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An estranged son desperately tries to recall just what happened 20 year ago that left him rejected by his father, alienated from his family, and alone in the world. An intellectual suspense story of the highest caliber. Premiered at the Bijou Theatre, January 29, 1957; Tony nomination for Best Play. |
| CAST/CREW |
James Prendergast
Dr. Frederick Baston
Stina Nielsen
Anne Callifer
Jenn Thompson
Sara Callifer
Darrie Lawrence
Mrs. Callifer
Jack Koenig
John Callifer
Kyle Fabel
James Callifer
Nicholas Kepros
Dr. Kreuzer
Laurinda Barrett
Miss Connolly
Simon Jones
Father William Callifer
Jenny Noterman
Production Stage Manager
David Toser
Costume Designer
Steve Ten Eyck
Lighting Designer
Lorraine Brocker
Assistant to the Director
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| PRESS |
Back Stage
Graham Greene's metaphysical detective story, "The Potting Shed," was written as a drawing-room... [ read more]
American Theatre Web
Seeing plays, well-known or otherwise, in the setting of a rehearsed reading can be a blessing and a... [ read more]
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| DRAMATURGY |
The fourth of six children, Henry Graham Greene was born on October 2, 1904 to Charles and Marion Greene of Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire. His father was the Head Master of Berkhamsted School, which Graham attended from the time he was eight years old. Greene?s childhood was not a happy one. A timid and sensitive boy, seldom found on the cricket field or partaking in anything requiring much physical exertion, Greene would escape into the world of literature. The stories he immersed himself in during this time (works of such authors as Rider Haggard and R.M. Ballantyne) would eventually become great influences on him and contribute to the development of his own craft.
Green says he suffered from intense psychological pressure during his childhood, which lead to a nervous breakdown and several suicide attempts. These early brushes with death undoubtedly influenced the mature writer of The Potting Shed.
He continued his education at Balliol College, Oxford, studying modern history. The absence of his Headmaster father and cruel schoolmates did not, however, make for a more pleasant scholastic experience. According to Greene?s autobiography, his time at university was spent ?drunk and debt-ridden.? With the encouragement of Kenneth Richmond, a London therapist, Graham began to write. He became an editor of the school paper, The Oxford Outlook, and submitted work regularly to various student magazines. He even published a book of poetry (Babbling April) before graduating in 1925.
After graduation he took a job as a journalist at the Nottingham Journal (interestingly, the same place and occupation of James Callifer in The Potting Shed), and then became a sub-editor at The Times in London where he worked until his own writing began to support him.
By the time The Potting Shed made its way to the Gotham spotlight in January, 1957, Greene enjoyed international renown with a string of successful novels (and screenplays) to his credit, among them: The Power and the Glory, The Third Man, The End of the Affair, and The Quiet American. In fact, the initial story idea for The Potting Shed originated from one of Graham?s ?abandoned novels.? His talent as a writer of fiction was evident. Less secure, particularly in his own self-doubting mind, was Graham?s skill as a dramatist. Prior to The Potting Shed, the only play credited to Graham was The Living Room, a drama which, though it enjoyed a considerable success with London audiences, was poorly received in New York and ran for a disappointing twenty-one performances. This difference between the British and American theater scenes was, for Graham, a kind of education in humility. For his second dramatic attempt, he felt the need to explain himself. In the program of the opening production of The Potting Shed at the Bijou Theatre, he wrote, ?I am a stranger to the theatre.? He described the diverging experiences of being a writer for the page and a writer for the stage. ?A novelist has to work alone, [but in theater], the act of creation?continues long after the script is written through the anxious period of the casting, rehearsals and preliminary performances, always in the company of other people.? He went on to quote Chekhov, saying ?the novel is a lawful wife, but the stage is a noisy, flashy mistress.? Her alluring charm had certainly captivated Greene and this time, with The Potting Shed, she proved more affectionate than before.
?An absorbing and fascinating drama,? raved Richard Watts, Jr., of the New York Post. ?It has bite, it has drive, it has wit,? exclaimed Tom Donnelly in the New York World-Telegram. ?Original characters and provocative ideas,? reported Brooks Atkinson in The New York Times. Graham had found a place for himself amidst the thriving metropolitan theater life with The Potting Shed, as well as a TONY nomination for Best Play and a nomination for the Pulitzer Prize. (A TONY nomination was also given to Sybil Thorndyke ? who played the role of Mrs.Callifer ? and the TONY Award for Best Featured Actor of 1957 went to Frank Conroy for his portrayal of William Callifer). After a three month run and 143 regular performances, general cash-flow problems and the refusal of Ms. Thorndike and her husband, Lewis Casson (who played Dr. Baston) to renew their contracts, closed The Potting Shed at the end of May, 1957. It opened again the next year on London?s West End ? with a slightly reworked version ? where it achieved moderate, but not earth-shattering, success.
In addition to his fiction and non-fiction writing, over the next twenty-seven years Greene persistently continued to write drama ? he said that his life as a writer was ?littered with discarded plays, as it [was] littered with discarded novels,? ? but he never found the same success that came with The Potting Shed. The fruits of his labor included The Complaisant Lover (1959), a comedy; Carving a Statue (1964), a farce; The Return of A.J. Raffles (1975), a parody; and For Whom the Bell Chimes (1980). Additionally, Graham wrote various dramatizations for radio and television.
Greene converted to Catholicism in 1926, when he married Vivien Dayrell-Browning. Later he remarked, ?I had to find a religion ? to measure my evil against.? Much of Graham?s work includes religious themes ? though certainly not all ? and he complained that he hated the term ?Catholic novelist,? which seemed to have become attached to his name after his novel The End of the Affair launched him into the international spotlight.
A veritable globe-trotter, Graham had an adventurous side as well, and embarked on countless global treks both to satisfy his insatiable restlessness and to rummage for new material for his writing. His travels lead him to such places as the wilds of Liberia, Mexico, Vietnam, Kenya, Poland, and Sierra Leone where he worked for the British Secret Intelligence Service during World War II.
Due to his literary achievements, Graham was able to live comfortably in his later years at residences in London, Antibes, and Capri. He associated with a multitude of prominent figures in his day, including T.S. Eliot, Evelyn Waugh, and Noel Coward. A self-described ?bad husband and fickle lover,? Graham was also notorious for his promiscuity and for several long-term relations with women outside his marriage. In 1948 he separated from his wife, though they didn?t formally divorce until 1975. He died quietly in Switzerland with his companion, Yvonne Cloetta, on April 3rd, 1991.
TACT/New York City
SELECTED WORDS
NOVELS
The Man Within
The Name of Action
Rumour at Nightfall
Stamboul Train
It's a Battlefield
England Made Me
A Gun for Sale
Brighton Rock
The Confidential Agent
The Power and the Glory
The Ministry of Fear
The Heart of the Matter
The Third Man
The End of the Affair
Loser Takes All
The Quiet American
Our Man in Havana
A Burnt-Out Case
The Comedians
Travels with my Aunt
The Honorary Consul
The Human Factor
Doctor Fischer of Geneva or The Bomb Party
Monsignor Quixote
The Tenth Man
The Captain and the Enemy
PLAYS
The Living Room
The Potting Shed
The Complaisant Lover
Carving a Statue
The Return of A. J. Raffles
The Great Jowett
Yes and No
For Whom the Bell Chimes
SHORT STORIES
Twenty-One Stories
A Sense of Reality
May We Borrow Your Husband?
The Last Word and other stories
TRAVEL
Journey Without Maps
The Lawless Roads
In Search of a Character
Getting to Know the General
ESSAYS
Collected Essays
The Pleasure Dome
British Dramatists
J'accuse
Yours etc.
Reflections
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
A Sort of Life
Ways of Escape
Fragments of Autobiography
A World of My Own: A Dream Diary
BIOGRAPHY
Lord Rochester's Monkey
An Impossible Woman
CHILDREN'S BOOKS
The Little Train
The Little Horse-Bus
The Little Steamroller
The Little Fire Engine |
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