Will Waspe's Whispers
Until twenty-four hours before he announced tile programme for this year's Dublin Theatre Fese tival, director Brendan Smith thought he'd hav Paul Zindel's award-winning New York PlaY' The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-1■10°!1 Marigolds, as one of the Festival's SCOOPS. production seemed firmly arranged and is itste? in the official brochure, but it won't be there. /1 clearly discomfited Smith said if he went int° any details of the reasons behind the cancel1. tion, he might find himself in a libel suit. le, fact, the deal was called off due to the intransigence of the Ne°. York producers (headed by Orin Lehman, grandson of former NI York governor and senator Herbert Lehman) who insisted oil rights over every facet of the Dublin production and were acc°';, rnodated most of the way by Michael McAloney who was to stag' the play this side of the Atlantic. After a multitude of difficulties, the final straw for MeAlorie), was the demanded guarantee not only of a London run to f01, the Dublin premiere but a firm West End opening date. " AnYb°u;, , who knows the London theatre knows that that is impossibieid grieved McAloney, "but these people are amateurs and they wc),"Ipr not budge on it, even though we'd gone along with every °Ws' condition."
Ladies from London
Likely leading lady of Marigolds (see above), which made a 811,e)a,,dv; way star of Sada Thompson, was to have been Wendy Hiller. Miss Hiller is off to Cambridge to play Mrs Alving in the reviv'r of Ghosts at the Arts Theatre there on February 17, with a °lir to follow. She's just one of several distinguished actresses late.ii neglected by London managements who are being snapped til) enterprising provincial theatres who hold out the lure of the " Orr they always wanted to play." Peggy Mount, for example, is le rently playing Mrs Malaprop, in The Rivals for Coventry's Belgrard Theatre, and Joan Miller opens next week as Mrs Warren in Richa„e Digby Day's production of Mrs Warren's Profession for the Thea' Royal, York.
Something for the Boys
Shed no tears for the plight of Raymond Mander and Joe Micti chenson, who have had a fine haul of press publicity because d, the threatened demolition of the nine-room house in Venner R°30t, Sydenham, which houses their historic Theatre Collection. No able theatricals ' from Sir Noel Coward to Emile Littler have be.ry prompted to write letters of protest, and after a public ingt/Ale, and an inspection by Lewisham Borough Council, a decision on molition has been delayed for three months. A rare storm in a teacup, for the facts are these: that the coln;; cil is obligated in any event to find 'The Boys ' (as they are knaWrio and their Collection alternative accommodation, that there 15 d, reason whatever why it should be particularly in Venner and that it is not, anyway, a public benefaction but a private 031, mercial enterprise. Furthermore, notwithstanding that last faea its future is assured, for 1,500 square feet of space is being allatery to the collection in the National Theatre buildings now under ce)ai struction. The only problem remaining will be the Boys' persarlrs wardrobe — all those gorgeous outfits which so many first-nigh° believe they make themselves.
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