Forty Years On

I saw the original production of Forty Years On at the Apollo Theatre in 1968 and Alan Bennett’s play made a deep impression on me. It had a strong cast featuring John Gielgud as the headmaster, Paul Eddington as his liberal successor, Alan Bennett as the schoolteacher Tempest and amongst the schoolboys Anthony Andrews. Carl Davis was organist and music director. Albion House is a decaying school in the South Downs and to celebrate the Headmaster’s final day the boys are putting on a revue of the twentieth century up to 1968 called Speak for England Arthur. Within that play is another, Hugh and Moggie and their nanny sit out the war in a basement bar in Claridges. There are also witty parodies of Bloomsbury, TE Lawrence and John Buchan. It is both a big literary and historical sweep and chaotic romp but also an allegory of Britain in the sixties which Bernard Levin refers to in his memoir of the times The Pendulum Years.

Because of its large cast it is not often staged and my fear was that it was now dated. Good theatre does not date and there are enough witticisms and perceptive observations to carry it. Indeed my companion, a Brexiteer, felt we could do without the update from 1968 to the present day being a montage of the political events culminating in Brexit. I would have left it as a period piece. The audience at Chichester is an aged one anyway and I suspect many will have seen or at least remembered the 1968 production.

I managed to get lost walking from the station. I asked the way and the helpful lady said she had seen the production, enjoyed it but noted that Richard Wilson the headmaster was reading from a crib sheet. He had suffered a near fatal heart attack and perhaps learning all the lines is beyond him. He had aclear resonant voice and maximised the lines but I felt it was something of a benefit performance. This and the sheer number of layers to the play which did not always make it chronologically easy to follow makes me doubt whether unlike some of the successes of the previous regime of Jonathan Kent it will transfer to the West End but certainly new artistic director Richard Evans has got off to a good start with this revival.