An Englishman in Phillipopolis

An update on this post from November 2008

Rummaging through some old photographs, I found three from the Braintree County High school play of 1963. This was Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw where, in my final year, I played the part of Major Petkoff, a bumbling old army veteran. In Act II, I had a long speech where at some point Petkoff says "There was an Englishman in Phillipopolis who use to wet himself with cold water every morning when he got up. Disgusting!" On the first night I was completely thrown when the audience laughed. As they did again on many other occasions in what is Act II (wikisource has the whole text.)

  The last of the performances was on a Saturday evening. There was one big problem. Kenny Ball was playing that night at the Dunmow Jazz Club where my friends and I never missed a show, with a lager and lime in the pub before it started. All the big trad jazz bands played there: Acker Bilk, Chris Barber, the Dutch Swing College Band. And Kenny Ball was the biggest of them all. I think he may have only ever played one night at Dunmow. But there was no point buying a ticket. However, after the play, one of my friends arrived and, although it was late, persuaded me to go and see what was left. He must have had a car to get there? For some reason, we were allowed in without a ticket, and the band had just started it's second set. It was wonderful.

13th November 2020: A book I am reading about a sixteen year old boy who joins a theatre group in the summer holiday reminded me of when I was sixteen and successfully auditioned for the school play that year (a play always alternated each year with a Gilbert and Sullivan). For the life of me I cannot remember what the play was called. I only had a very small part, and I may have had only had one line if that. Then there was the after play party.

4th March 2024: Revisiting this post, I wondered if the night when Kenny Ball played Dunmow was actually the dress rehearsal for the play. That would make more sense, but who knows?