In this episode, we go on three very different nights out.
Writer Viel Richardson considers the layer upon layer of history and ghosts present front and back stage in London’s West End Theatres.
Learn more about this story’s themes with these links:
Wikipedia has an article on Handel’s premiere of Rinaldo. The BBC has a video concerning the meaning of Georgian face patches.
Theatrical extravaganzas of 19th and early 20th century had the ‘freedom’ of few or no health and safety laws. Spectacular coup de théâtres included railway crashes, infernos, waterfalls, horse races.. you name it.
If you want to delve deeper into this subject, you could try here:
The Arthur Lloyd website has photos of the 1909 production of The Whip, including the train and the horses preparing for the race.
Black American nightclub singer Elisabeth Welch came to the UK in the 1930s and stayed and performed in the West End throughout the Second World War.
Want to know more? Try starting here:
The National Portrait Gallery has several portraits of Elisabeth Welch. The British Film Institute has the scene from Derek Jarman’s 1979 film The Tempest of Elisabeth singing _Stormy Weather _(at the age of 76) on YouTube. The National Archives website has an article about the bombing of the Café de Paris in 1941.
