| Set List | 'Everyman',
Banner parade,
'The Grail Song',
'God Bless our Pope',
'God Save the King' (The National Anthem) |
| Performance Notes | "NUNS IN MODERN GARB.
HABITS WORN ONLY IN CONVENTS.
Members of a recently founded Roman Catholic organisation, known as 'The Grail,' will make their first public appearance in London on Sunday, Oct. 29. On that date they will produce the fifteenth-century morality play 'Everyman' at the Albert Hall.
The Grail had it origin a few years ago in Holland. The fully professed members of which there are now more than 100 - take the customary vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, While in their convents they wear religious habit, but outside, where their work chiefly lies, they dress in the prevailing fashions of the day...
Such plays as that to be done at the Albert Hall are characteristic activities of the movement.
In this case the production of 'Everyman' will be in a style and on a scale hitherto unknown in this country.
There will be several hundred performers - all girls attached to 'The Grail' - and each speaking part is assigned, not to an individual, but to a group. Colour and massed movement are important features of the production."
(The Daily Telegraph, 23 October 1933)
"For their memorable performance of Everyman at the Royal Albert Hall last Suriday afternoon, the ladies of the Grail, who justly boast that theirs is a Movement of Youth, discarded antiquarianism and made use of every device, ancient and modern, which could best serve their purpose. They went back to Greek and Roman precedent by treating the Albert Hall as an amphitheatre. That is to say, most of the dramatic action took place in the vast arena. The roomy orchestra and the broad steps leading up to it from the arena were given to the less terrestrial personages and to the cantors, while Heaven and the Everlasting Seat of "the highest Jupiter of all" were in the lofty tiers level with the organ. Moreover, the Grail players were Greek in their reliance upon the dance (in a hieratic and austere fashion), as their chief means of expression. Indeed, if I may use a word which is associated with directly secular shows, the Grail Everyman is primarily an Everyman ballet, very much of which could be understood without the aid of spoken words...
The Grail performance eliminated solo actors, and gave all the dialogue to groups. For instance, the part of Everyman himself was sustained by six players, all speaking in unison; Good-fellowship was played by about thirty, Death by about twenty, Kindred by thirty, and Beauty by twelve...
The colour effects were lovely, the costumes admirable, and some of the strokes of acting (such as Everyman's despairing and contemptuous casting down of Riches) were masterpieces. The organ was magnificently handled by a lady with a sense of music-drama, and the singing (all plain-chant) was consistently good. I come to the best of all. The Grail's Everyman was utterly Catholic, and therefore truly Evangelical...
Everyman's sacramental confession was accompanied by a solemn, full-voiced chanting of Confiteor, and he came forth from it in albis. There was nothing morbid about his death. He sank to sleep, supported and mothered by virginal Good-Deeds, like the dead Figure in a Pieta, while celestial quires sang In Paradisum. And when he had fought his fight and finished his course, angels came flashing and leaping like flames down every stairway of the auditorium, bearing palms of victory. The applause when all was over sounded thin; but its smallness was more eloquent than thunderous plaudits, because it was evident that most of the onlookers felt applause after so solemn and impersonal a scene to be out of place. Nor did the players want it. Not one name of actor, producer, costumier, or musician was disclosed to us in this unselfish team-work.
Everyman was followed by a brief and brave parade of the Grail's young ladies carrying ample banners very different from the petty bannerets which usually content us in England. The units declaimed their Song, which is a profession of faith and a self-dedication. Then "God Bless our Pope" was sungI wished it had been to Handel's tune from Samson and "God Save the King"; and the thousands who had crowded the Albert Hall passed out into the street knowing that the Grail has come to stay."
Those in attendance included His Eminence Cardinal Bourne; his lordship the Bishop of Lamus; his lordship the Bishop of Gargara; a representative of the Diocese of Berlin; the Very Rev. Eneas Tozzi, S.C. (Provincial); Monsignor Canon Howlett ; Abbot Egan, 0.S.B.; Abbot La Bail (Chimay Carthusians); Dom Bernard McElligott, 0.S.B.; Dom Benedict Steuart, 0.S.B.; Audrey Lady Petre Countess van Cutsem; Lady Moore; the Argentine Ambassador and Madame Malbran; Lord and Lady Howard of Penrith; Sir Odo and Lady Russell ; Mrs. Walter Raleigh Kerr; the Mayor and Mayoress of Kensington; Baronne de Stoeckl; the Netherland's Minister and Madame de Marees van Swinderen; Adele Countess Cadogan; Canon Tynan; Mgr. Canon Jackman; Canon Monk ; the Rev. Joseph Keating, S.J.; the Mother General of the Ladies of the Grail; Lady Makins; the Earl and Countess of Kenmare; the Rev. Robert Steuart, S.J.; Dom Stephen Rawlinson, 0.S.B., C.M.G.; the Rev. J. G. Vance, Ph.D.; Sir Paul Makins; Viscount FitzAlan, the Rev. J. P. Arendzen; Miss Balfe; Lady Armstrong; Lady Rankeillour ; the Rev. Bernard Grimley; Princess Blucher; Lady Winefride Elwes ; the Earl and Countess of Iddesleigh; Major Alec Waley, K.S.G., and Mrs. Waley ; Lady Catherine Ashburnham ; the Rev. C. Martindale, S.J.; Lady Cecil Kerr; Lady Margaret Kerr ; Lady Minna Butler-Thwing; Mrs. Passmore; John P. Boland, K.S.G., and Mrs. Boland; Miss van Roey ; Miss Chapman (President, Children of Mary); the Chief Dame of St. Joan; Lady de Clifford; Mrs. Blennerhassett; Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Oldmeadow; Lady Kathleen Lamb; the Rev. Basil Gudgeon; Mr. Algar Thorold; and Miss May Bateman.
(Taken from The Tablet - The International Catholic News Weekly, 4 November 1933) |
| Related Archival Material | Programme (RAHE/1/1933/47),
Handbill (RAHE/6/1933/14) |