The heater is on in my study this morning. An icy wind (gale really) blowing down from Europe where the weather it seems has been absolutely terrible, though it seems to have abated somewhat at the moment. At least the cyprus trees I see from my window which give me an indication of the wind force are not exactly bending in half. I hope it hasn’t knocked all the blossom off the yellow plum. The tree looked absolutely magnificent a few days ago and I reckoned we’d have a great crop so I’ll take a look later and see what damage might have been done though why look? Ti na kanoume. What can one do? I guess another hundred oranges are on the floor as well though we are now coming to an end with them for the moment. In no time at all the trees will be flowering again.
“The 88” raises it head again. Had an e-mail from one Oliver Hawes, grandson of the mutineer Joseph Hawes. Oliver never saw the play though evidently relations of his did, but he is now more than ever interested in the happenings in Jullundur in 1920 when a section of The Connaught Rangers mutinied and for which one, James Daly, was shot. In my autobiography a whole chapter is devoted to The 88. It was produced at The Old Vic in 1979 and came off very fast after the London critics, with one exemption, had a field day tearing it to pieces; we believe not because of the play itself but because of its content, being put on shortly after the assassination of Louis Mountbatten. Judging from
Some of the reviews one would think a play is written on Monday, rehearsed on Tuesday and up on the stage Wednesday. In actual fact it took fourteen years for it to be produced and rereading it, after my correspondence with Oliver, I still think it is one of the best things I have ever written. He evidently would like to see it produced in Ireland although that is naturally where I first tried with no success; The Abbey of course and the great Tyrone Guthrie who, if I remember correctly, was quite snooty about it. What a furore the play created when it was put on, the television sponsors wanting their name taken off the posters for a start. Quite idiotic really. They had the script a goodly while before the play went into production. If they had any doubts about it they had plenty of time to make their objections. The basic fact I suppose is it is quite probable nobody at the TV company bothered to read it.
Oliver is the fourth person in the last year to contact me about the play. He now wants to write a book about his grandfather. A few years back Irish TV made a documentary about the mutiny, concentrating on Joseph Hawes which is why this has all come up, and Oliver sent me the DVD which was very interesting and moving. He asked if the buildings, which are still there to this day, are as I imagined them when writing the play to which the answer of course is not really. Unless you were to see photographs or visit the actual location you get a picture in your head nothing like the real thing, just an approximation, but close enough for stage presentation. Of course a designer could always go a step further and do his own research but naturalism wasn’t part of the brief anyway.